See some our earlier posts on the Franklin Armory Reformation here, here, and here. While the Reformation may look like a short barrel rifle, it isn’t. That’s because the barrel uses straight lands and grooves.

A conventional pistol or rifle barrel has twisted lands and grooves, as seen above. The Reformation’s straight-grooved design quirk was Franklin’s clever way of getting around being designated as either a rifle or a shotgun and avoiding NFA regulation due to the gun’s short barrel (Franklin offers them with either 7″ or 11.5″ barrels).

Even though the Reformation isn’t explicitly outlawed in the gun rights-challenged state of New Jersey, the state police decided it isn’t something they like very much and they banned sales of the gun in the Garden State. Franklin sued.

Now, however, apparently in response to all the hubbub, our friends at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have issued an official opinion on the matter. In a letter dated today, the ATF has consulted its National Firearms Act ouija board, waived its regulatory wand, and declared the Reformation to be…a shotgun. A short-barreled shotgun. But not one that’s regulated under the NFA.

The Reformation is now a new critter altogether…a GCA/SBS. This genus is so new, in fact, that the ATF is having to gin up entirely new forms and procedures to handle it.

That means that as of today, FFL’s can no longer sell them (until the new forms and procedures are in place). To be clear, they haven’t outlawed the Reformation, they just need to develop procedures for selling them.

While the ATF’s letter doesn’t directly address this, it does not appear that the ATF will be pursuing Reformation shotguns that have already been sold to the public. For now. Owners are only prohibited from transporting them across state lines.

Here’s the letter: