Did you expect it to? The rule has been published in the Federal Register. To change anything, the rulemaking process has to be followed or courts have to intervene.
This whole thing is political theater. Also, nobody has had an AR pistol since the day this rule was published. Anybody that did, on the day the rule was published, suddenly found them the possessors of unregistered Short Barrel Rifles. If you fill out the ‘special’ F1, you’ll have to acknowledge the fact you previously owned an NFA item and BATFE is just choosing not to prosecute you for that transgression since you are voluntarily registering it now.
Not at all, which is while I filed my Form 1.
And while technically all AR pistols became SBRs when the ruling was published, how many people were prosecuted for owning an unregistered SBR since it did?
The entire situation is ridiculous, but honestly adding a "brace" (essentially a stock) to an AR pistol did make it an SBR. It's just the ATF, in its usual confusion, bought into the argument that wasn't the case.
Then they realized it was.
In the end, AR pistol owners get a free tax stamp for the ATF's **** up. Some will not register, and most likely will never be held liable for failing to do so; but there's always the chance.
For some like myself, it's not worth the risk.
Do I really care that the Feds know I own a AR pistol/SBR? Not really, Big Brother has more information on me than I care to think about; but in the end it's only one firearm out of many they are aware of.
Hell, I had a SBR on my 'To Do' list for quite some time. This just kinda forced the issue, and kept a few hundred dollars in my pocket as a result. That's money I can use when I file my Form 4 for a suppressor one day down the road...