I'm not advocating for defiance, each person is free to react to new legislation as they see fit. I am just commenting on the unjust nature of the current situation we find ourselves in. Good, decent people being categorized as felons for owning something that the government has deemed perfectly legal for 10 years.This whole conversation is unfair.
I see the point @Goodcat is making. How many of you talking a big talk about non compliance are going to have his back if he decides to keep his braced pistol unregistered in defiance of the ATF's whim?
I seem to remember a few different threads popping up on here about people who've been arrested for defying gun laws: some guy who was arrested because he bought and sold a few guns without an FFL and the ATF decided he was doing it for profit; some LEO who used his position to get his buddy a machine gun and the ATF decided he wasn't in line with the NFA; the guy in Florida who got arrested for making an illegal SBR and letting an ATF informant shoot it, etc, etc. Thing is, I don't remember a single voice in any of those threads supporting those people; they were universally called morons and the general consensus seemed to be either they were getting their just deserts, or in the best case, that the law was unjust but they were still stupid for breaking it, or at least for getting caught.
Point is, it's easy to talk about non-compliance abstractly, but I've yet to see anyone give support for somebody in a concrete situation.
Of course, I see the other side of it, too, which is that if there are people on here who are in defiance of the ATF, and who would genuinely support others who are too, they can't talk about it here, nor should they. That's what makes this conversation unfair.
If you want to advocate defiance, INGO just isn't the place to do it. We're not allowed to advocate resisting the government outright (and with good reason, too.) Online we're all in compliance with the government, and if you're not in compliance in real life, well, trying to provoke you into saying so would be stupid and pointless.
So if you want to have these conversations have them face to face with friends you can trust. An online forum just isn't the place for it, because trying to convince strangers behind a screen to defy the government is always going to look like posturing and empty bravado, no matter how you try to slice it.
I just posed rhetorical questions, so you don't need to answer if you suddenly find yourself in a country where you have to be careful what you say on the internet.
Some people don't care about pistol braces and feel that this isn't the hill to "die on," so to speak. That's fine, and a reasonable position. Easy enough to remedy anyway, if you don't want to be on a registry or be a felon. Take the brace off and wait to see how this plays out in the courts. If it's an AR platform, throw a $250 16" upper on it. Viola, new rifle. Until they deem even that a machine gun, of course.
That's not the point. The point is, this type of arbritary ******** from the government only serves to create a populace with less and less respect for the rule of law. When you have law enforcement officials in our neighboring state in a vast majority of their counties openly telling their governor to go **** himself with his infringements on the 2nd Amendment, I call that a clue.
Again, I'm not advocating that anyone take any action one way or the other. This is a discussion forum, so that's what I'm here for. I'm just making observations. One of those observations is that the federal government should not be shocked when the same disrespect and outright defiance and massive non-compliance shown to their laws regarding immigration and marijuana is seen in their attempts to criminalize decent, law-abiding people in other subject areas.
As for discussing what happens if this goes beyond pistol braces, we don't have to talk about that if you don't want to. I already know how that goes...
Massive noncompliance with SAFE Act - Hudson Valley One
In January 2013, as the nation still mourned the Sandy Hook massacre, New York State enacted one of the nation’s strictest gun control laws. But three and a half years later, state records obtained after a lengthy court battle show that a key provision of the New York Safe Ammunition and...
hudsonvalleyone.com