What to do if you find a machinegun in the attic

An SOT on Arfcom documented this, and it's informative.

Maybe my second career should be law, specifically firearms law....

AR308

In looking to SBR an AR-style 7.62 rifle, I needed to find 1) a DPMS-compatible rifle, and 2) one that was in stock.  That's been a challenge.  I almost picked up an Aero lower; fortunately I didn't because it was AR-10 style rather than DPMS.

One article I found comments on compatibility.

There's a spreadsheet that details some of the variants; however, it doesn't differentiate between DPMS gen 1 and 2, and the Aero Precision M5 is compatible with DPMS gen 1.

Brownells has a bunch of AR308 parts, of course.

Can Design

Some light reading this evening on silencer design:

• Rules of thumb for suppressor design (generalities)
• Beating a dead horse back to life (interesting Q&A, answers here)
• Pressing freeze plugs into M baffles (improvised tools)
• Omega baffles (wut.)
• .30-cal can design (lots of pictures of the cone baffle design) 

There was also a funky thread on .510 Whisper that's worth reading.

Can Comparison

On the Minnesota NFA FB group, a guy posted a link to an Arfcom thread and YT video of a comparison of a bunch of popular rifle suppressors.  Very cool.  Apparently the Rugged Surge, Dead Air Sandman, or Silencerco Omega are the ones to consider.

Can Knowledge

Mobile link dump.

I had been concerned about having "extra" suppressor parts, like mounts and endcaps.  Here's an example of apparently acceptable use in the industry.  There's a post on Reddit NFA regarding a SilencerCo Octane 45 that has an available 9mm endcap, apparently only available at SilencerShop.  (The description says "replacement," so perhaps that's how they get away with it.)  The interesting thing on the Reddit post was hole dimensions of the baffles: they seemed fairly loose at 0.493-0.495" for each of the eight, and 0.509" at the endcap.

Another post on Form 1 builds is from SilencerTalk.  It linked to an apparently famous thread dating back to 2008 regarding one user sub-sonic's build of a freeze plug can.  This must've been the prelude to the whole solvent trap suppressor craze....

The original thing that drove me to question mounts was mention of YHM Wraith cans, which apparently had the flash suppressor be the back of the can, yada yada yada.  Apparently it's a non-issue normally.

I came across another site that definitely treads the edge of legality, because it isn't until halfway down the page that it mentions one needs an NFA stamp to do this legally.  Unconstitutional or not, if one gets caught with an oil filter can and no stamp, one's gun rights are gone.

Form 1 Suppressor Stuff

I'd mentioned SD Tactical previously.  They make a "B tube" size "solvent trap" in titanium, suitable for conversion to a sound suppressor when in possession of an approved Form 1.

The SDTA forums have some information on builds.

J&S Tactical makes jigs for forming the B-tube freeze plugs; however, those tools cost more than the tube!

Another board dedicated to Form 1 cans has a list of freeze plug dimensions and part numbers, as well as valve spring retainers (VSR) that are apparently often used for a blast baffle.  Another post has weights of the B size tubes and end caps.

Other solvent trap makers include Apogee and Diversified Machine (who only takes orders via email).

There was mention of "reflex" suppressors on the boards.  One description I found had a picture but it still wasn't clear exactly how it differs from non-reflex.  Another one clarified it as basically jamming the barrel up in the can.  And another showed an adapter for a reflex-type design.

One concern of mine was multiple mounts.  One solution:

You need another use for the adapter, if you're worried about possession of suppressor parts. 

For me, I built a set of three cans, with three different lengths and calibers. The thread pitch and length for all adapters is identical. So, I will always have three complete cans, but any of them could be mounted on 1/2-28, 5/8-24 or a YHM mount. 

If you had a piece of tube that didn't suppress sound, like the MAAD brake I linked, it could "hold" a mount and an end cap, so that each piece is always in use.

I like that better than the set screw solution.

There's also JM Performance Fittings, which sells "storage cups" that fit in flashlight bodies.  They make a B-tube model, but unfortunately it's only aluminum.

Firearms Laws

I loaned my copy of the ATF law book to my trust lawyer, and I realized I wanted to look up something.  Oops.  Well, it turns out that the guide is available in PDF, but picking out the individual constituent documents is useful too.

According to the National Archives, when a bill is signed into law, it's assigned a Public Law number, published as a Slip Law, and is included in the next Statutes at Large.

National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA34, Title II) [Wikipedia]

Public Law 73-474

Statutes at Large 48 Stat. 1236 [legislink]

26 USC 53 [GPO]

27 CFR 479 [GPO]

Destructive Devices weren't included in the text of the NFA, only MGs, SBRs, SBSes, and AOWs.  The SCOTUS case Haynes v. U.S. [Wikipedia] [Justia] essentially said that a person couldn't be compelled to register an NFA item because it could be incriminating based on the 5th Amendment, but this was remedied by the passage of GCA68.  (The case was decided Jan. 29, 1968, and GCA68 was passed Oct. 22, 1968.)  The effects of GCA68 on NFA34 are described in a document from the ATF.

Amusingly, the other legal challenge to NFA34, U.S. v. Miller [Wikipedia] [Justia] [LII] [rkba.org], was predicated on that a sawed-off shotgun isn't a militia weapon, and therefore wasn't protected under the 2nd Amendment.  This was patently false, since SBS "trench guns" were in fact used in World War I; unfortunately, the defendant didn't show up, due to being deceased, and the assertion was uncontested.  However, GCA68 reversed that line of assertion, in proclaiming that items without a sporting use are not protected.

Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA68, Title I) [Wikipedia] [GPO]

Public Law 90-618

Statutes at Large 82 Stat. 1213-2 [legislink]

18 USC 44 [GPO]

27 CFR 478 [GPO]

The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 [Wikipedia] slightly predates GCA68, and prohibited inter-state trade in handguns.

The Wikipedia list of gun laws in the U.S. shows a bunch of other legal noise, too.

ATF NFA FAQ

Bardwell's NFA FAQ

Re the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937 that imposed an excise tax on firearms and ammunition: CRS 7-5700.

Suppressors

Holy hell, it happened!  Minnesota legalized sound suppressors!!  As per SF 878 / HF 849.  May 22nd was a beautiful day.

There's going to be one helluva backlog, though.  According to NFATracker.com, the Form 4 wait times are in the realm of 3 months from the time the check is cashed.  According to SilencerShop.com, the Form 4 wait times are at 4 months for trusts, and 6-8 months for individuals.  And that's after the Form 3 transfer between dealers!

The ATF isn't accepting e-file for Form 4 (transfer of NFA firearm) submissions, but they are for Form 1 (making NFA firearm).  Hence some people are recommending using a kit to build one's own for minimum wait time.  SD Tactical Arms makes one such kit, as detailed on ar15news.com.

20x110mm Hispano?

Apparently both Anzio Ironworks and Serbu Firearms have a semi-auto 20x110mm Hispano rifle in development.  Neither company lists it on their website, but there are videos on YouTube.  (For a second, a frivolous use of my WDC stock largesse popped into my mind....)  Those cartridges have to be like $20 a pop!
 
Anzio semi-auto 20mm
Serbu's Typhon 20 rifle - the comment says it's the Navy M21A1 round, but in other commentary I read it's 20x110mm

AR-15 Pistols

Looking into building an AR-15 pistol, but don't want to have to use a modified bolt carrier.  Phase 5 Tactical appears to have a pistol buffer tube (receiver extension) that works with a standard BCG, unlike the GSE setups.  However, it looks like 7.5" barrels require special considerations with the gas tube.  Their quad rail looks neat too.

Arfcom has an area specific to AR-15 pistols.  The section on ATF letters is interesting and useful.  Apparently the Franklin Armory pistol can have a vertical foregrip because its OAL is over 26", and thus falls into a gray area where it's not an AOW.  Supposedly an 11.5" barrel will result in that OAL.

AR-15 SBR

So I'm jonesing to have an SBR.  Not like I can really afford to do it, but I want to.  In the worst way.

I was thinking it might be easier to buy a registered receiver.  However, apparently that's not the way it works: even though the receiver is the registered part, there are certain requirements on ATF Form 1 or 4.  There's a thread on Arfcom on this subject, with a link to the ATF FAQ on SBRs.

Well, and then there's the issue of whether or not I'd need law enforcement approval if I were registering under my LLC.  The Interwebz say no, but the Form 1 instructions doesn't specifically say this.

I also found Tactical Innovation's AR-15 lower receivers, the T15BDX.  I think I'd have to pick up one of those if I ever decide to pull the trigger on an SBR.  Nice looking hardware.

.950 JDJ in Action!

American Specialty Ammo posted a picture of a .950 JDJ rifle on Facebook (in which I had a passing interest), and one commenter linked to a YouTube video of the rifle actually being fired.  Talk about bad-ass!

If I could only afford one larger-than-half-inch-bore rifle, I think I'd have to take the .950 JDJ over 20 mm.  I mean, just think of the incredible amusement in having a .950-caliber (24.1 mm) firearm that's not Title II!

Suppressors in MN

Apparently there's been some movement recently on the legality of suppressors in Minnesota: FFL holders (though not collectors) are allowed to possess suppressors for soliciting sales to law enforcement or military.  Hmm...I may need to get my Type 01....

Blog post from GEMTECH (a suppressor manufacturer)
Discussion on Arfcom

Googlefu turned up a 2011 thread on SilencerTalk as well.  Suppressor freedom in MN now!!

RDIAS

For some reason, I got the urge to read about registered drop-in auto sears (RDIASes).  I'd love to own a machinegun (although in my crummy state I can only own C&R MGs) and a RDIAS seems like a good option.  Being drop-in, it can be moved to another lower receiver, as being the registered part, it's not limited to one lower.  Plus, an RDIAS works with .22LR conversions, so one could burn through 1k rounds for less than $50.

Well, Google turned up a few interesting hits:

• Quarterbore's DIAS page, with great pictures (the toolbox case for AR-15s is cool too!)
• A discussion of RDIAS vs. RLL vs. RR on Arfcom
• An Ohio gunsmith who works on NFA weapons and can fix damaged RRs

Ah, I wish I were rich and lived in a state that didn't suck from the perspective of gun laws.  Maybe it's time to move, or buy some land in a neighboring state....

Hughes Amendment

David Codrea has a GRE article on the Hughes Amendment to the FOPA of 1986.  In it, he links to a YouTube video of the Congressional session where the vote was taken.  A transcript is available, but it's unknown if it's official.

My commentary on the War on Guns blog post:

My reading of Heller's reply: He says that many have discussed the possibility of repealing the Hughes amendment, and that he will vote to protect the Second Amendment, which implies that he would support legislation to strike down the machinegun ban. However, Heller doesn't say he will push such a bill himself. It's interesting that he mentions the amendment was passed under questionable circumstances, however.

With regard to the YouTube video on the vote, my interpretation is that the 6:25 recorded vote is on "the motion for the committee to rise", which I believe is to close discussion on amendments. This fails, and Hughes asks for five minutes to explain the bill. Then, despite the motion failing, Rangel calls for a vote on the Hughes amendment at 8:16. Only a voice vote is recorded. In the background you can hear someone telling Hughes, "let it go, let it go, let it go, you got it!" Obviously not even Hughes realized what the hell was going on. At 8:43 someone asks for the ayes and nays, i.e. for a recorded vote, and Rangel just smiles at him and proceeds. Subsequently, there's a vote on the Volkmer substitute as amended: the voice vote fails at 9:10, but the recorded vote passes at 9:45.

A transcript of the session (unknown if it's considered official) can be found here:
http://www.iwilldefendtheconstitution.com/Congressional_Transcript.pdf
Based on the transcript, some footage was omitted, such as the diatribe by Weiss after the recorded vote on the motion to rise but before the vote on the Hughes amendment.

::G

It's crazy that it took 25 years for the video footage to come to light.

Slamfire Shotgun

I'd heard that old Winchester 97 shotguns can shoot by holding down the trigger and pump-cycling the action.  That got me thinking as to whether the disconnector could be removed from the trigger group of a Remington 870 to do the same thing, so I searched for such info.  After all, someone on the interwebz had to have tried it.

Apparently it's not possible on the 870:

as one who performed warranty repair on both mossberg and remington, their nomenclature for disconnector is the part that leaves the hammer cocked when you cycle the arm with the trigger pulled. it would be pointless to disable these parts, because the design of those two particular arms would only allow the hammer to follow the bolt. it would not behave like an old ithaca 37, or win '97 or old m-12.

The poster also brought up the good point that such a modification might be considered a machinegun conversion, since continuously depressing the trigger might be considered a single trigger pull.  A different forum post noted that the Ithaca model 37 has the same behavior as the Win 97.  Whether that's true of new production guns isn't clear.

rec.guns

FAQs from the old rec.guns Usenet group have been archived on recguns.com.  Of particular interest is the Class 3 FAQ.  Amusingly enough, I ran into a Class 2 SOT last weekend who claimed that the Class 3, etc., names didn't exist.  I knew that I'd seen them in the law before, but since he's an SOT and ought to know his business I didn't argue.  The terms are defined in 27CFR179.32.  The Government Printing Office (GPO) has online versions of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), which describe how the laws in the United States Code (USC) are to be carried out.  CFR Title 27, Chapter I, Part 179 details regulations pertaining to NFA weapons.

In the past, I've thought of studying law and becoming a pro-gun lawyer like Alan Gura, but 1) I'm of the ponderous thinking type, not the quick thinking type, and 2) I lack the faculties to memorize all that case law.  Still, it'd be worth studying law a bit, since my primary hobby is heavily regulated.

A couple other interesting rec.guns FAQs were the ones [1, 2] written by a couple of Japanese guys.  That's by far the most descriptive information on Japan's gun laws that I've seen.  Attempting to read the original text for someone who's barely competent in the language much less in their different legal system is an exercise in futility, so the summaries are a good background.  Presuming they're still accurate after 15+ years, that is!

Large Caliber Miscellany

So I was searching for information on loading large caliber projectiles.  Though I haven't even gotten my .50 yet, I'm already looking at larger bores....  Having found a source for 20mm Vulcan brass, I was curious about what it takes to load the monster.  That led me to a site on THR that has a bunch of links that are useful, as well as information from a guy who shoots PTRD and PTRS rifles.

The useful links:

• Reloading the .50 BMG - Good info on how it's done!
• CH4D - Reloading equipment for eccentric calibers such as 20mm Vulcan, Solothurn, and Lahti.
• The Gatling Gun - History from an Army website.
• Bartlett Reloaders - For once-fired brass.
• Pat's Reloading - .50 BMG projectiles.
• Hi-Tech Ammunition - .50 BMG projectiles.

20mm Ammo

I found a place to get 20mm Vulcan ammo online: Brashco Specialty Ammo!!  $6 for sized brass, and $0.85 for training bullets (probably hollow).  Might be cool to get a live round just to have!  I've got some dummy rounds, but those aren't nearly as interesting.

NFA

On occasion of getting fingerprinted for the first time, I got to thinking about SBRs. Specifically, if it's possible to register an AR-15 lower in multiple calibers and have multiple short-barreled uppers. Of course that's a popular question, and the consensus seems to be that for each short upper, one needs to have either an SBR lower or a pistol lower, otherwise the ATF might find that one is in possession of an unregistered SBR. One forum post has a letter from the ATF expressing this opinion (which is hardly the letter of the law, but it might as well be):

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND FIREARMS
WASHINGTON, DC 20226

MAR 29 2000


903050:GKD
3311

Dear Mr. :

This refers to your letter of January 22, 1999, requesting information on the legality of possessing a registered full auto AR15 and also possessing one or more semiautomatic pre-1994 assembled AR15 rifles. You appended a number of specific questions relating to this subject which will be answered in the order received.

1. Is it legal to own both?

There are no provisions under the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) or the National Firearms Act (NFA) that prevent an individual from possessing an AR15 registered machinegun and one or more semiautomatic AR15 rifles at the same time.

2. If legal to own both, which spare parts for the registered gun can you also own?

Any weapon which shoots automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger meets the definition of a machinegun in section 5845(b) of the NFA. An AR15 rifle which is assembled with certain M16 machinegun fire control components, and which is capable of shooting automatically is a machinegun as defined.

The definition of a machinegun in section 5845(b) also includes any combination of parts from which a machinegun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession or under the control of a person. Thus, an AR15 rifle possessed with separate M16 machinegun components can meet the definition of a machinegun, if the rifle shoots automatically when the components are installed.

The fact that a person lawfully possesses a registered NFA firearm does not grant authorization to possess additional non-registered firearms. A person who possesses a registered M16 machinegun and a semiautomatic AR15 and a separate quantity of M16 machinegun components could be in possession of two machineguns.

We advise any person who possesses an AR15 rifle not to possess M16 fire control components (trigger, hammer, disconnector, selector, and bolt carrier). If a person possessed only the M16 machinegun and spare M16 fire control components for that machinegun, the person would possess only one machinegun.

3. Is it legal to use the upper receiver off of the semi-auto AR's on the registered AR if they are different lengths and calibers than listed on the Form 4's?

Before changing the caliber of a registered machinegun you should notify the NFA Branch in writing of the proposed change.

4. Can you have several short barrel uppers (less than 16 inches) for the registered AR and still own semi-auto AR's?

The definition of a firearm in section 5845 of the NFA includes a rifle having a barrel or barrels of less than 16 inches in length. An individual possessing more than one short (less than 16 inches) barreled upper receiver for a registered AR15 machinegun along with one or more semiautomatic AR15 rifles would have under their possession of control an unregistered short barreled rifle, a violation of the NFA.

5. If you change the barrel length or caliber do I need to notify your office if the change is not a permanent one?

This question was answered under Question 3.

We trust that the foregoing has been responsive to your inquiry.
If we can be of any further assistance, please contact us.


Sincerely yours,


[signed]
Edward M. Owen, Jr.
Chief, Firearms Technology Branch

The one pistol lower per SBR upper is a pretty ingenious solution.

I also found an SBR FAQ arfcom and an NFA FAQ on mdshooters.com. The latter has a bit on Pre-May dealer samples which was enlightening:

PreDealer guns are different. A Class III (SOT holder) can buy PreDealer guns, while these are cheaper but, they are not much cheaper. They are normally 2/3 the price of a transferable version. But once a SOT gives up thier license he/she may keep the Pre Dealer samples. They can not be sold to anyone other then a dealer or manufacturer when the owner is ready to sell them. People jumping through the hoops & paying the $500 yearly, to get thier SOT to buy these guns. It's worth the effort and cost, you can easily save thousands quickly on a couple guns.

Apparently the source of the Pre-May samples are MGs that were imported after 1968. Guns that were imported as semi-auto after '68 and then remanufactured in the U.S. and registered in the NFA are fully transferrable.

This NFA shit is tricky.