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Can You Build Your Own ?

23K views 20 replies 10 participants last post by  kingnathanial 
#1 ·
Legal question......

I am a machinist and have a machine shop and I am cursed with an insatiable curiosity about mechanical things.

Is there a legal way to build your own MG?
Not for resale or anything like that just for your own private use. And I'm not talking about converting a semi auto, I mean scratch building something like a Sten etc

Of course I will have to wait until I move to NM :machinegun:
 
#3 ·
Last time I talked to an ATF agent he said its about the same as converting a semi auto to full auto. Generally illegal and if you just hafta you must go through all the legal routes and pay the government a lot of money and wait a really long time. You must also have a gun manufacturing license. In other words, it'd be easier just to buy a full auto after all the paperwork.

Interestingly enough, he admitted that most people break federal [ATF] laws out of ignorance and usually nothing happens to them if they're one time offenders such as kids with sawed-off shotguns.
 
#4 ·
In other words, it'd be easier just to buy a full auto after all the paperwork.
I guess the next question would be then how much $ would it cost then?
Looking at prices of $10,000 and up for an existing weapon.....!!!!
Plus it wouldn't be near as much fun to just buy it
 
#5 ·
Some states are in various stages of passing legislation declaring that federal firearms laws no longer apply to their residents and purely domestic use. In those jurisdictions, I imagine there will be a way to do what you propose without federal regulation, within the context of residence in a state that has made provision for same.
 
#6 ·
Check this out



Obviously this guy made this.
So I'm guess from the answers in this thread that this item is not legal.
What a hoot
 
#9 ·
Is that expensive to do?
 
#10 · (Edited)
http://www.quarterbore.com/nfa/class3.htm

To get a Class 2 SOT status, you need a manufacturer FFL, which includes Type 7, 10 - and pay a yearly $1000 or $500 (reduced rate for small manufacturers) tax due every July 1st.

The yearly fee for a FFL 07 is $150. Manufacturer of Firearms other than Destructive Devices

The yearly fee for a FFL 10 is $3000. Manufacturer of Destructive Devices, Ammunition for Destructive Devices or Armor Piercing Ammunition
 
G
#11 ·
You do not have to have a license for personal use. However, a MA manufactured after July '86 is still illegal. Check out P. A. Luty's book, " The expedient 9mm submachinegun." Amazon has it. Let us know how it goes, just create a different login before you do. You know big brother and all. P. A. Luty is a Brit, and the whole idea of his design is that it can be produced using basic raw material, and when it is disassembled, it looks like a bunch of shop junk. And that is where it safely stays until needed.
 
#12 ·
There was a machine shop in my town making AR lowers and various related parts. He made himself some home-made M16s and got ratted out by one of his own employees. He now resides in "the joint". Be careful with this, big brother is everywhere.
 
#16 ·
Yes you can. I am currently building a 1919A4 Browning machine gun. The only catch is, it must be built semi auto.
The internals must be machined for semi auto and made so that there is no way to convert it back.
It's sad because this gun screams full auto. I'd pay the tax if I could make it Full auto.
The way I understand it is that as an individual, you can build one gun a year.
I have built several AK's, bought the reciever blanks and bent them.
 
#14 ·
I shoot at a range where the owner has manufactured BAR's and other FA machine guns. He has done so legally. He told me you have to have a manufacturers license to be able to do so. He rents the use of them out at the range. One point he stresses is that the law states the FA machine guns cannot ever be transferred to anyone. They cannot be sold. They cannot be given. When he dies they have to be destroyed.

If you want the name and number of his gun range let me know.
 
G
#17 ·
Check out BATF's website FAQ on licensing requirements. I believe your allowed to build more than just one a year w/out a license, just can't do it for profit. Sad, really, that they feel they have to restrict it so. Did you know that there are only 10 rifle barrels makers in all of the EU! And only one is a small machine shop, the rest are big corps, with big gov't contracts. That's what happens when people are ignorant and afraid of firearms. Thank goodness we still have a few hundred. Talk about an endangered species, gunmakers. I think as a matter of national sercurity it should be taught as an elective in every community college.
 
G
#18 ·
so for $500 bucks & have the the permission of your local law enforcement, you too can manufacture any weapon as long as it's not a FA Machine gun? I wonder what the cost is for a FA? I know you can purchase them, see them for sale all the time, have even seen ones that are "transferable" in the ShotGun News. Too rich for my blood I'm sure. Heck, even if I could own one, with the price of ammo these days, I couldn't afford to shoot it, LOL.
 
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