Disposal of an unregistered NFA item?

[wooderson]

EDITED to remove details - not sure how close it would have been to skirting trouble for APS.

Could an unregistered select-fire M16 (allegedly 'brought back from Vietnam') be turned into the police (or other authorities) without risk for the current owner?

[wooderson]

nb: the best answer here is 'contact a lawyer' (which was my suggestion to the person who posed a form of this question to me - except he'd never heard of the registry or 1968/86 laws), but I know little of the ways of the ATF.

[charby]

How much they want for it?


Just kidding... I'd probably part it out and take a torch to the bolt and lower reciever.

[Manedwolf]

Best bet:

Contact a lawyer.

If they don't want it destroyed, contact the branch it came from, they may be willing to take it for a museum.

If it's just an ordinary M-16, though, I would say the best thing possible is that the receiver never existed, and whatever means is necessary to make sure it never existed. The rest of it is quite legal and can be used to build a semi replica with a pin adapter and new lower.

Do not contact the agency mentioned. It would be like accidentally stepping on a landmine, but the landmine would be less injurious.

[K Frame]

VERY tough call.

When I was working for the gunshop around 1994 a kid (probably 24-25) brought in something his Grandfather, an officer in the Army during WWII, had gotten back from Italy...

A Beretta M1938 submachine gun, with full tools, and 6 magazines in the issue canvas case.

I've never seen one as nice as that one. It looked to be unissued, and was probably worth at least 5 figures.

He had the military accession papers with it, but NOTHING from ATF.

I advised him to contact the attorneys at NRA.

[Scout26]

Step one: Get a lawyer, a good one, and one with NFA experience.

Step two:  Contact a muesum (Like my personal favorite The 1st Infantry Division Museum at Cantigny here in Wheaton, IL  http://www.firstdivisionmuseum.org/ ) so that it may have a chance of not being destroyed by the BATFE.

[Bogie]

Take the sucker apart.

Now, what is the offending part? The trigger group?
 
Bury it somewhere.
 

[Manedwolf]

Take the sucker apart.

Now, what is the offending part? The trigger group?
 
Bury it somewhere.
 

Receiver and bolt, AFAIK. The rest is just fine, and can be used to make a legal gun. A real M16 receiver is quite obvious, as it has the markings for da switch!

[SomeKid]

Bolts are nfa now?

[Manedwolf]

Bolts are nfa now?

In this case, yes.

The BATF has interpreted the law such that parts which would convert a firearm into an NFA firearm are subject to registration including:

    * Any combination of parts designed and intended for use in converting weapons into machineguns;
    * Any part designed and intended solely and exclusively for converting a weapon into a machinegun;
    * Any combination of parts from which machineguns can be assembled if the parts are in the possession or under the control of a person;

 The M16 bolt carrier will have about a 2" closed section at the rear that actually trips the auto sear in full-auto fire. Semi-auto versions have either a reduced closed bottom section (about 1/2"), or a completely open bottom (made so that an adapter to M-16 configuration cannot be installed).

[wooderson]

Haha, my second suggestion after call a lawyer was to dump it in a bucket of concrete and ditch it the next time they (person in question is the brother of an old family friend) went fishing in the Gulf. Wasn't sure if saying that here would make APS look bad - guess not.

For some reason I hadn't considered taking it apart and rebuilding on a new receiver. I'm ordering the punches/tools to build on my own lowers, and I assume the guy remembers some of his Army training, I'll definitely recommend that. I guess after he heard about the rapper getting busted for 'machine guns' in Georgia, he got nervous.

[Manedwolf]

You don't need tools to rebuild on a new lower.

It comes apart like any AR. You just need pin adaptors for the new pins to fit in the larger diameter pin holes on the old Colt M16 upper. Just hang onto the old buttstock, too, even the grip if you want total authentic and if it'll fit.

Tell him to order a new Stag lower and reuse all the rest of the parts, and order a new bolt carrier, bolt and pin adapters. It'll be like $160 for the assembled lower, $120 for a phosphate bolt assembly.

Nobody here is suggesting breaking a law, everyone is saying to abide by it. And once the reciever and bolt are destroyed, using the remaining parts is in full compliance with the law.

I've got a "government profile" AR built using a Colt/Martin Marietta 20" A2 upper probably from an early 80's M-16, a matching buttstock, DPMS chromed bolt and a Stag lower. It works fine.

[jnojr]

PVC pipe, endcaps, silicone sealant, shovel.

[Jamisjockey]

PVC pipe, endcaps, silicone sealant, shovel.

Save it for the end of days or TEKOWAWKI.  Hide it.  Don't talk about it.  Don't play with it, don't shoot it.  Just remember it's put away in a safe place for the day you need it, and hope you never do.

[The Viking]

PVC pipe, endcaps, silicone sealant, shovel.

Save it for the end of days or TEKOWAWKI.  Hide it.  Don't talk about it.  Don't play with it, don't shoot it.  Just remember it's put away in a safe place for the day you need it, and hope you never do.

And wipe everything surface as well. Atleast that's what I'd do. Just in case someone else found it and turned it in.

[Balog]

Seriously guys, if TEOTWAWKI happens, do you really want to fight the ravening hordes with something that's been underground for years? 

[AZRedhawk44]

Acetyline torch to the offending parts.

As much as full auto could be "fun", it isn't that useful unless practiced with.

You ain't gonna practice with it.

Take it down, and melt the receiver and bolt to bubbling puddles of molten magma.

Molten magma.

[HankB]

I thought some hipower shooters actually used M16 bolts on the theory that they were a bit heavier, and thus reduced cyclic rate, increasing accuracy?

In any case, it's simply an M16, like millions made before - why give something so "common" to a museum? Parting out the gun, keeping the legal parts and destroying the ones that would send me to the Graybar Motel is what I'd do.