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Santa Rosa Co Fl Sheriff Promoting gun ownership

www.facebook.com/100067892889297/posts/317649533841474/

Due to a recent arrest and the subsequent press conference, the Sheriff of Santa Rosa County in NWFl has encouraged homeowners to shoot anyone breaking into their property.

The Sheriff’s department is now offering gun safety courses to encourage gun owners to safely own guns. These courses do satisfy the requirements to apply for your concealed carry permit.

The course is only open to residents of the county.

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Alphabet soup small portion

I’m going to keep it brief today. Mostly so I can get back into the blogging that has been neglected. Before I got my own first personal gun and fell into the hole that is the world of firearms I mentioned .22LR and said that I thought it stood for “long range.” I was laughed at. It was forgotten about, and I don’t even remember the rest of the conversation but here is where the LR comes from.

In 1887 the Stevens Arms Co. developed the ultimate in .22 rimfire cartridges, the .22 Long Rifle. This used the .22 Long case with a 40 grain RN bullet loaded to higher velocity than the 29 grain Long bullet. It shot flatter and hit harder than any of the previous .22 rimfires except the .22 Extra Long, whose performance it essentially duplicated in a shorter case, and it was more accurate than that cartridge. Source

I could only find a blog post that actually described why the designation of “Rifle” followed the “Long” title. “This new round, designed for rifles only (it was too powerful for use in pistols) was the Long Rifle.”

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Alphabet soup served Colt

The very first handgun I ever had was a Sig Sauer P250. The trigger pull is a mile long and it is chambered in .45 ACP.

ACP means Automatic Colt Pistol.

If you only came to find out what it stood for, there you go. If you want to learn a little bit more then read on!

John Moses Browning, of Browning Arms Company fame noticed while hunting that when his friend shot in tall grass, the blast would push the grass with the force of expelling the bullet. From that experience he began to work on an idea to harness that force into helping to operate the firearm mechanisms to cycle the next round.

The creator of the 1911 pistol, the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), and the Browning Machine Gun (.50 BMG), sold his 32 Browning self loading cartridge to Colt which then became the .32 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol)

This is a very condensed version, but my sources came from here, here, and of course Wikipedia. Stay tuned for more Acronym Articles and check out the store for new addition and restocks!

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Alphabet soup MM Flavor

I decided to start with a relatively benign acronym today. The abbreviation standing for Millimeter which is what one of the most common calibers for handguns is measured in.

Developed in Austria by Georg Luger in 1901, the 9mm Luger or 9mm Parabellum is by far the most readily accessible handgun and cartridge in the United States. (8 out of 10 guns. com 2021 Top ten selling handguns)

Here’s what I found. Basically, bullets designed in any country other than the US would be measure in millimeters.

Metric diameters for small arms refer to cartridge dimensions and are expressed with an “×” between the bore diameter and the length of the cartridge case; for example, the 6.5×55mm Swedish cartridge has a bore diameter of 6.5 mm and a case length of 55 mm.
Barnes, Frank C. (2016). Woodard, W. Todd (ed.). Cartridges of the World: A Complete and Illustrated Reference for More than 1500 Cartridges (15th ed.). Iola, Wis.: Krause Publications. p. 9. ISBN978-1440246425. OCLC934886116.

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Solutions to the bracing issue

The new regulations for pistol braces and the 4999 worksheet is going to have a lot of people having to modify their pistols to comply with the regulations. There is no “grandfather” clause where people are going to get to keep their firearms as-is. The only options for people are:

  1. ⁠Change the parts that “make it an SBR.”
  2. ⁠Register it as an NFA.
  3. ⁠Have it destroyed.
  4. ⁠Change out the barrel to make it a complete rifle.

Going off of the picture attached to this post, the points it has are as follows (12):

  • 1-2 points for the KAK Stabilizer
  • 2 points for “fin type” without arm strap
  • 3 points for length of pull (12.25 in)
  • 2 points for folding stock
  • 2 points for fin type again regardless of strap
  • 1 point for BUIS (back up iron sights)

In order to comply with the first option of making it legal, the fin type stabilizer would remove six of the points. Removing the folding stock would remove five more of the points. There are systems out there that have shorter buffer tubes and could change out the buffer tube to reduce the length of pull therefore not needing to remove the folding buffer adapter.

If you are local, bring it in and we can discuss the options to make the pistol within regulations. If not, contact us and we can discuss the options along with a quote to be within the regulations.


In reality, you could “keep it as it is” however, it would have to be registered as an NFA (National Firearms Act) firearm so this still wouldn’t count as being grandfathered in. The form 1 submission would need to get the tax stamp and have the fee paid.


You could have it destroyed. Sure. You could also scramble bald eagle eggs for for breakfast too, but who wants to destroy freedom?


The last option of changing out the barrel to a rifle length (16 inches) would make it into a full on rifle. You can buy barrels in your desired length with pistol gas block and then the only thing you would have to change out is JUST the barrel. In all honesty you are probably going to want to change out the hand guard too.


Here is the our contact info if you want to discuss options or set up an appointment:

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Defining a Firearm

Rifle; A weapon designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder, and designed or redesigned and made or remade to use the energy of an explosive to fire only a single projectile through a rifled bore for each single pull of the trigger. 27 CFR 478 atf.gov

Under the new regulation, this definition will include: includes any weapon with a rifled barrel and equipped with an attached stabilizing brace that has objective design features and characteristics that indicate that the firearm is designed to be fired from the shoulder, as indicated on ATF Worksheet 4999. National Register page 5111

The ATF and Department of Justice feel that rifle caliber pistols are too unregulated and easily concealed which make it easier to use in the execution of a crime or mass shooting. Boulder CO 2021 and Dayton OH 2019 are the two examples that were given. Short barreled rifles (SBR’s) take longer to obtain because of the ‘Form 1’ process to get them approved and the additional checks that need to be done to obtain them.


What is worksheet 4999? This form is intended to differentiate between a “true” pistol (firearm) and an SBR assigning a point value between zero and four to assess the firearm incorporating a stabilizer brace is an SBR or Firearm.

  • 1 point: Minor Indicator (the weapon could be fired from the shoulder)
  • 2 points: Moderate Indicator (the weapon may be designed and intended to be fired from the shoulder)
  • 3 points: Strong Indicator (the weapon is likely designed and intended to be fired from the shoulder)
  • 4 points: Decisive Indicator (the weapon is designed and intended to be fired from the shoulder)

The new regulation and form 4999 have mostly clear definitions of what can and cannot be included in the features of a braced firearm when when it changes from a firearm into an SBR or rifle.


Here is a basic breakdown of the form 4999 and some of the reasons for the defining characteristics:

Section One: overall characteristics
Weight of more than four lbs or 64 ounces. Anything lighter could only be classified as a pistol but must not have stabilizers because it is light enough to be fired one handed.
Overall length must be between 12-26 inches otherwise it’s pistol sized and doesn’t need a brace or rifle sized and needs a stock and would be considered a rifle.

Section 2: this is dealing with mostly the stabilizing braces or why comes out of the back of a pistol length rifle.
Accessory design– the pistol brace cannot have similar characteristics to a regular existing stock design. Any form of adjustability like a stock, sling mounts (because existing stock have QD mounts in them)
Rear Surface area– pistol braces will have more points assigned the more substantial they are. Fin type would be a point, braces approximating the same size as a normal stock would be two points, braces clearly meant (with enough surface area) to be shouldered would be three points
Adjustability– this is either or. If it is not adjustable, that would be zero points. If it is adjustable, it would be two points.
Stabilizing support- this determining factor add points to any brace if you cannot secure it to your arm, which is the intent of the brace. A) Counterbalance which utilized a piece that goes under the arm and along the inside or outside of the forearm using the weight of the pistol to apply pressure to push the brace against the arm. This is the only type that does not have to have a strap and won’t count as any points unless you can fold up the lower part that goes under the arm which would only add one point to the total. B) Blade type will count for two points unless it has a strap for attaching to the forearm which would reduce the points to zero. C) Cuff type braces will only count as zero points for fully wrapping the forearm, one point as long as it can be partially wrap the forearm, and if it doesn’t have a strap at all it will count as two points. D) Split stock braces which are essentially stocks that are split but have to ergonomic way to strap to the forearm will count as three points.

Section three: deals with items designed for a rifle or physical characteristics of the pistol length rifle.
Length of pull– this is the distance from the trigger to the end of the pistol or rifle (center of the shoulder stock). The shorter it is the less likely it is to be able to be shouldered. If the length of pull is 13 1/2 inches or more it is considered a rifle. This is the full four points, but there are three lesser categories for it to fall under for it to accrue less points, but each is a minimum of a point unless it is under 10 1/2 inches.
Attachment method– buffer tubes come in a variety of sizes. When the pistol brace is attached to different buffer tubes, it can signal that the pistol was meant to be a rifle in a pistol aesthetic. Pistol length buffer tubes are a single point. Rifle length or PDW rails are two points. Adding a folding adapter or spacers indicate that the length of pull is elongated and count as two points. There is another three points for modifying a stock to incorporate a brace. On the 4999 form it lists “slant” as to signifier which would be three points.
Stabilizing brace mods or configurations– if you don’t have a strap to secure the brace to your arm, you will get points as this indicates that the brace is not used as a brace and instead for shouldering. If the strap is there, but too short or made of elastic, then those count as less points but still accrue points. Any modifications that change the brace into a stock automatically get four points.
Peripheral devices– Anything that can be added and used as support for a second hand or the pistol itself add points such as a handguard stop, bi-pod, or a ‘secondary grip.’ Not having sights, backup iron sights, or red dot sights with a magnifier that can be flipped to the side all count as two points. Any scope or sight that requires you to get your eye close to it count as four points because you would need two hands to get it close enough to your eye to use them which would classify the pistol as a rifle. Any unloaded pistol weighing over 120 Oz is deemed too heavy to use a brace and is automatically awarded four points.

TL;DR- The noose is tightening around the neck of the Pistol AR. If it can’t be shot one handed, you likely have an SBR according to the new regulation.