Today’s unnecessarily complex gun law question
Courtesy of subguns:
I have a 26.5mm flare pistol and was thinking about making it into an integrally suppressed single shot pistol after filing the paperwork and paying the $200. This would be done by making an insert to drop into the flare gun barrel, chambered for 38 S&W or 32acp. The insert would have bleed off holes into the barrel area which would be baffled to cool the gasses and reduce the sound. My question is which part would I serialize on the form 1 application, the insert or the flare gun barrel?
Let’s see. Potential Any Other Weapon because it’s smooth bore? Potential destructive device because the bore is greater than 1/2 inch. Also, obviously, the insert may have to be the suppressor. Interestingly, non suppressed flare guns converted to fire rounds have been deemed AOWs by ATF. Though no explanation to why.
February 25th, 2010 at 10:02 am
I think you would have tp serialize all three parts or the whole gun. If it is designed as a silenced pistol then when you add the insert it becomess part of the gun because that insert is what will make it sillent AND make a gun for all intensive purposes. At present it is a flare gun and it is sold as a “non destructive device” IE not a gun. When you add the insert it becomes a gun in the classic definition so you would have to put numbers on the receiver, the barrel and the insert(the silencer) and this should cover all angles of the situation at hand. Just my logical opinion. That being said…….BUY MORE AMMO
February 25th, 2010 at 10:27 am
The AOW flare guns would probably be because AOW’s include “disguised” guns, like belt buckle guns, cane guns, pen guns… Although disguising a gun as a flare gun shows a certain lack of imagination and effort. 😉
February 25th, 2010 at 11:17 am
From the political side, the ATF can make a written ruling, stand there and watch you comply with their written ruling, and then arrest you for doing exactly what they told you to do.
My suggestion is, unless it’s a clear-cut case, don’t do it, the law will not matter, and the ATF’s written ruling on the matter won’t matter.
February 25th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
This Quote Is Truth.
(…and especially don’t go basing an entire business model on something as flimsy as an opinion letter! 😮 )
February 25th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
The flare gun inserts in question were ruled AOWs, becuase they were smoothbore.
In teh hypothetical case of the converted, suppressed, flare gun, I BELIEVE ATF Tech Branch (who are the ones who would HAVE to answer the question, and it’s a legitimate question), you would have to serialize the flare gun BARREL as a suppressor (it’s functioning like the main tube of a silencer — the main tube is to a silencer what a receiver is to a firearm), and if the insert was smoothbore, it would have to be serialized as an AOW.
February 25th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
Hmm. A while back, I imagined getting me one of those cheap H&R single shot 10 gauge guns, and doing something with a .22LR barrel insert and baffles which would screw into it on choke threads. See, there was this neighbor who had a really annoying Yorkshire terrier…
February 25th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
What about those 12-gauge inserts you used to see in boat stores, made to go into plastic flare guns? I wonder if they were made of good enough steel to stand a stronger-than-flare shotgun shell. They were smooth in their bores.