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Full Auto Thompson?
orygunmark76
Member Posts: 4 ✭✭
This has probably been asked a million times, but since I'm relatively new to Thompsons and nfa rules in general, I'll go ahead and ask again - I'm looking at purchasing a 1928A1 kit with an 80% receiver (on a gun auction site that will remain unnamed). The seller says that all it would take is about 30 min. on a vertical milling machine, and it is legal to build it into a full auto thompson providing the purchaser goes through the proper channels )(appropriate registration is filed, background check done, and tax paid). As far as I know, the seller is a class 3 ffl, and should know what he's talking about. Does it have something to do with if the gun (kit) has been registered previously? I thought that only complete pre-registered smg's could be sold as a full auto. If not, then why don't more people just buy a kit and a receiver and have their local machinist build them one? Thanks for your help...
Confused
Confused
Comments
Anything legal for us civvies to own must have been registered before May '86. Anything after is LEO/Military only...
That said, if you want a full auto tommy gun, they are out there - but expensive.
if it starts out auto, you can own it.
if you convert a gun to auto, you go to jail.
gun goes class 3 to class 3. no other way.
Former Member U.S. Navy Shooting Team
Former NSSA All American
Navy Distinguished Pistol Shot
MO, CT, VA.
A person who holds a 07 Manufacturing FFL, with a Class 2 Special Occupational Tax (SOT) may purchase and do the finish machining on an "80%" receiver and then register it as a post-86 machinegun on a BATF Form 2.
They do not need a demo letter from a PD. They're a "manufacturer" and can manufacture all day as long as the item is registered on a Form 2 and that Form 2 is submitted (I use a fax) by the end of the business day that the item is operational.
A "Class 3" or other FFL who hold a Type 01 "dealer" FFL, and Class 3 "NFA dealer" SOT...cannot manufacture a MG, even WITH a letter from a PD. They are not manufacturers. They are dealers. In order to have post-86 MGs transferred to them, they need a PD Demo letter.
Likewise, as an 07 FFL with a Class 2 SOT, I must obtain a PD Demo letter before acquiring MGs that I have not manufactured.
A non-licensee may not convert, obtain, or possess a post-86 MG, unless they are acting at the direction or behest of a LE agency or the military.
D.
I made it very clear to the seller that I was not licensed, and he also knew from a previous inquiry by me about a dealer sample. I feel like he was just trying to sell his kit (which I'm sure is very nice) and then let me find out the hard way on my own. I am still in the market for a Thompson, I'll just have to save my pennies a little longer...