They have said that a braced firearm with a rifled barrel less than 16“ designed to be shouldered is an SBR, that is all. You’ll have to decide which combination of elements combined do not create an SBR. They of course reserve the right to disagree with you, but I do believe that you, or someone, will begin submitting braced pistols for review shortly. They moved the goalposts, they didn’t end the game.
And retroactively decided that braces were intended and designed to be used as stocks, and therefore are stocks (which is hard to argue with since it is obviously true - there aren’t 25 million one armed gun owners in the US using braces as supposedly intended).
Unrifled isn’t an out since they’ve said the same thing about braces on shotguns. And 9 or 223 out of an unrifled barrel stinks.
Maybe someone will come up with a clever workaround. But that’s what the braces are, and apparently they think they can just squash it when they decide it’s time.
I actually tried using a brace strapped to my forearm - other than feeling like some kind of robot or cyborg soldier it was entirely useless. Very hard to get any sort of sight picture. Maybe it would work in the dark with NV and an IR laser instead of sights. I don’t think that would reassure the ATF or the gun controllers
So, to your point, we can use a 16”+ barrel which kind of defeats the whole purpose, or take off the braces, and to be safe probably revert to a plain pistol tube (on ARs that need a buffer to function only - all the others are out of luck). While the ATF may have hinted that they will leave some room for using braces on pistols legally, I seriously doubt it, but if they do I expect a) it will be only for someone that really has a disability, and b) even that will be so they can use it as a defense in court about “allowing them for the advertised purpose so we didn’t really change our policy at all”.
What is clear is that carrying a concealed AR pistol in my car is no longer as useful without the brace, and of course concealing an SBR is not legal in NC. That, and fun at the range, are the main use cases IMO.
I believed them when they said this was coming and expected some sort of amnesty so I paid the $200 to get ahead of the rush and ensure that my short uppers have a legally defensible purpose. Cheap insurance. Turns out they dropped the point system (so far anyway), so a simple pistol upper might have been sufficient, but I like LVPOs and other “features” so I didn’t want to take that chance.