To remove an NFA firearm from the registry after it has been converted back to a Title I firearm, you must send a letter to the ATF requesting the status change of the firearm.
Nothing is ever "removed" from the Registry, ATF just makes a notation that the firearm is no longer an NFA firearm.
HOWEVER, note that if you register one of these "braced pistols" as an SBR under the amnesty period, AND the firearm was originally bought by you with the brace attached, then it is my understanding that as far as the ATF is concerned it started life as a 'rifle' and can ONLY BE CONVERTED to a 16" bbl rifle, not into a pistol.
Not true.
Until the Rule was published last week, pistols with an arm brace were pistols with an arm brace. During the forbearance period, all one has to do is remove that arm brace and its still a pistol.
Ifyou bought it as a pistol and put the brace on yourself, then you might be able to remove the brace down the road and reconvert it to a pistol again and remove it from the NFA registry, but the ATF would have the final say in the matter with these amnesty firearms.
Who attached the arm brace to the pistol has nothing to do with anything.
During the amnesty period, you can remove the brace if desired and turn the firearm into a pistol, even if you originally bought the pistol with a brace attached. The ATF will waive the enforcement of making a weapon out of a rifle ONLY DURING THE AMNESTY period.
Forbearance, not amnesty.
ATF final rule:
3. Permanently remove and dispose of, or alter, the “stabilizing brace” such that it cannot be reattached, thereby removing the weapon from regulation as a “firearm” under the NFA. The Department recognizes that the removal of a “stabilizing brace” from a firearm that was originally manufactured or received as a “short-barreled rifle” results in the production of a “weapon made from a rifle” as defined by the NFA. However, the Department in its enforcement discretion will allow persons to reconfigure the firearm to a pistol by [INSERT DATE 120 DAYS AFTER DATE OF PUBLICATION IN THE FEDERAL REGISTER] and will not require the registration of these firearms as a “weapon made from a rifle.”
And that portion of the Rule you bolded is nonsensical.
Only 07FFL/SOT's "manufacture", and the manufacturing of an SBR requires NFA registration on a Form 2 and subsequent transfers require either a Form 3 or Form 4.
They weren't originally manufactured as SBR's, but as pistols.
They weren't "received" as an SBR either. That would have required a Form 4 tax stamp.
Prior to the publication of this rule, they were pistols. Meaning they were never rifles. ATF with a staff of lawyers doesn't read what they write.
ATF got spanked in US vs Thompson Center over "weapon made from a rifle"..........in 1992.
Rule 2021R-08F changes the definition of "rifle" to include pistols if "...equipped with an accessory, component, or other rearward attachment (e.g., a “stabilizing brace”) that provides surface area that allows the weapon to be fired from the shoulder, provided other factors, as listed in the definition, indicate the weapon is designed and intended to be fired from the shoulder."
