I received an email today from a client who wanted to know whether an angled fore-grip on an AR pistol makes it an AOW subject to the requirements of the National Firearms Act (NFA) as is the case with a vertical fore-grip.
One might be tempted to assume that the same logic that the ATF applies to vertical fore-grips would also apply to angled fore-grips. After all, their logic is that adding a vertical fore-grip means that the pistol is “no longer designed to be held and fired by the use of a single hand.”
However, in a 2010 guidance letter from the ATF’s Firearms Technology Branch, we see that the addition of an angled fore-grip, specifically the Magpul AFG, would not make a pistol an AOW.
Additional letters confirming this position followed in 2011 and 2013 and the logic is extended to the FAB Defense PTK. At this point, one would have to assume that any angled fore-grip of similar design would enjoy the same interpretation.
