Question for MG guys.

Doc

Is it legal for a licensed Class III manufacturer to rehabilitate a demilled MG?

Is it legal for a licensed Class III manufacturer to convert a semi auto gun into FA?

Also, I see this TV program "Sons of Guns" and they build MGs (and they have done the two things posted above) but such a gun would only be legal if sold to a Class III FFL holder or to police, right?

mark christian

It is actually a Class 2 Manufacturer; Class 3 is the SOT (Special Occupational Taxpayer code) for Dealers in NFA weapons other than Destructive Devices. A Class 2 Manufacturer may in fact do both but only for the purposes of building a restricted dealer sales sample machinegun which cannot be sold to the general public.

p3skyking

They can bring a papered DeWaT back to life after paying the $200. tax.

grumpygy

and here I thought you had a question one a MGB.

mark christian

When discussing MGs there are two terms used to describe non functional firearms which are often misunderstood and misused. The first is DEMIL and the second is DEWAT.

DEMIL is a MG which has been demilitarized to the point of having the receiver destroyed. Over the years BATF standards on this were vague and many parts kit sellers who included the DEMILed receiver with their parts ran into trouble when the BATF decided that the receivers were not properly destroyed. About ten years ago the BATF set up very specific guidelines covering the proper DEMIL procedure: Three cuts through the receiver each displacing 1/4 inch so that the receiver is in four pieces and each firearm type now has a specific area which must cut. Once accomplished the receiver is scrap metal. Since the receiver has been legally destroyed putting it back together means manufacturing a brand new MG and only Class 2 Manufacturers may do this.

DEWAT is a Deactivated War Trophy and means a still complete MG which has, through various methods (none of which have been allowable for fifty years) been made totally non functional as a firearm. In the late 1950s and up until around 1964 many thousands of MGs were imported and then deactivated, usually by plugging the barrel and grinding down the firing pin and welding over the bolt face or removing the firing pin and then welding the firing pin opening in the bolt closed. This made the firearm non functional but it remained an attractive display piece. Naturally the system was ripe for abuse and it didn't take long for guys to start swapping bolts and installing new barrels to create functional MGs to the point where the ATTU (as the BATF was then known) to close the DEWAT program. When the 1968 Gun Control Act was passed the Congress declared their famous Once a MG, always a MG DEWATS were suddenly no longer wall hangers but MGs. This meant that they had to be registered and go through the same transfer procedures as any other MG excepting there is no $200 NFA Tax due on DEWAT transfers. Since DEWATs are complete and registered MGs they can be reactivated at anytime and by anyone by using an approved Form 1 and paying the $200 tax. Anyone owning a DEWAT can do this, you do not to be an FFL holder or a Special Occupational Taxpayer because no new MG is being created, an existing one is simply being reactivated. This is why DEWATs sell for basically the same prices as fully functional MGs.