Ever wondered how many short barreled rifles and short barreled shotguns are out there unregistered?
I am guessing a lot.
I know my great grampa had one. It was a 10ga that had had the muzzles squished by a tractor on the farm. He just cut off the barrels short of the squish and carried on. I am certain those were around 16" barrels and I am equally certain that he never registered it. That gun sat in the umbrella stand by the back door for decades. My cousins and I looked at it a lot and touched it not at all. I think my dad ended up with it and it was a rusted mess by then, he prolly trashed it.
I've seen AR15 "pistol" uppers for sale at gun shows. No mention of NFA.
I've seen surplus M4 barrels (14.5" long) for sale at the same gun shows.
I know people who own both an AR pistol and a rifle and it's almost certain that in the privacy of their own home they've swapped some parts around.
I've seen obvious SBR's at the range.
How many of you have seen a vertical fore-grip on a pistol?
I have never been asked by any range officer if I have paperwork for my SBRs. And I am DYING to show them my $200 piece of paper!
Of course, it can be hard to tell sometimes. A 14.5" barrel is kinda hard to tell apart from a 16" at a distance and it gets even harder since there are extended flash-hiders to bring them up to legal length. My XM177E2 clone is also hard to tell since the 11.5" barrel is behind a 4.5" long flash-hider.
Still, I have never been challenged by a range officer, police officer, federal agent or fellow shooter. It makes me wonder how many people have noticed that we folks who jumped through all the hoops aren't being asked, so why bother spending $200 and letting the government know that you for sure have a gun?
And this doesn't even begin to discuss the homemade silencers and machineguns out there.
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When you take into account some of the mind numbing trivial details that make things legal or not, it's easy to miss things and not even know it.
ReplyDeleteFor example, an "AR Pistol" that has an 11.5" barrel is over 26 inches in length (typically). This means adding a vertical foregrip will not make it into an AOW NFA item. It still has no stock, so it is not an SBR either. It is outside the bounds of the NFA as written and enforced by the ATF. Do the same with a 10.5" barrel, and its a felony.
A "shotgun" that comes from the factory with a pistol grip instead of a shoulder stock can have the barrel cut down shorter than 18 inches (and keeping the whole gun longer than 26) without making a "Short barrel shotgun" or AOW out of it because according to the NFA, shotguns are "made or remade" to be fired from the shoulder. You can convert a traditional shotgun to the identical configuration, and setting them side by side you have one that's legal and one that's a felony. Only way to tell would be serial numbers.
Its a silly and stupid law, and should have been tossed out in US v Miller many years ago.
And the biggest question is "How much trouble comes from these Unregistered NFA Items"?
ReplyDeleteHell hang around the gun club and you'll hear about somebody's tricked-out race gun that needs to to back to the smith (or to a better smith) because it has a habit of doubling or tripling with one trigger pull.
We don't hear about these people taking on a life of crime, or the gun killing innocent people.
Maybe the NFA is yet another instance of bullshit legislation.
"I have never been asked by any range officer if I have paperwork for my SBRs."
ReplyDeleteWhy would the range officer care? That's between you and the BATF.
The only times I've ever inquired with a shooter if they had a Form 4 was with buzzguns. Those things are conspicuous.