NFA FAQ's

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This is intended to be an ongoing informational thread about NFA ownership. Please don't post in this thread. If you have specific questions, PM me and I'll either try to answer them or include them in a future post.

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In indiana, the only NFA item that is not legal is the SBS, or Short Barreled Shotgun.

MG's, or Machineguns, are legal.
SBR's, or Short Barreled Rifles, are legal.
Suppressors, or silencers, are legal.
DD's, or Destructive Devices, are legal, thoug explosive DD's are not legal.
AOW's, or Any Other Weapons, are legal.
SBS's, or Short Barreled Shotguns, are not legal.

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There is no blanket "license" to own NFA items for non-dealer individuals. For each item that you want to purchase, you must pay the Federal Government a one-time $200 transfer tax. This happens when you go to transfer a machinegun or suppressor or any other NFA item from a dealer, or if in-state, an individual. You submit the application for transfer (in duplicate) along with $200 to the NFA division of the BATFE and uppon approval, you can take posession of your item. Along with your submission of the appropriate transfer form, you must also submit a Citizenship Certification, a set of your fingerprints (taken by a qualifying agency, and in duplicate) and the transfer form must be signed by your Chief Local Law Enforcement Officer. It sounds complicated, but rest assured that it is not. In most jurisdictions in Indiana, obtaing the CLEO signoff is as easy as walking into the police station and asking to see the Chief/Sheriff, however there is a more formalized process in Indianapolis that takes more on the order of a couple weeks to complete.

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Sounds like a dumb question, but it is not.

Section 5845(b) of the NFA defines “machinegun” as

“any

weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot,
automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the
trigger. The term shall also include the frame or receiver of any such weapon, any part
designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed and
intended, for use in converting a weapon into a machinegun, and any combination of
parts from which a machinegun can be assembled

This means that the part that causes an otherwise semi-auto firearm to become a machinegun is itself the 'machinegun'. The popular examples of this being the Drop In Auto Sear and the Lightning Link for the AR series of rifles. These items by themselves are just hunks of metal, but by definition, they are a machinegun because of what they are designed to do. The nuts and bolts of it are that if you pull the trigger one time and more than one round goes off, you have yourself a machinegun.
While machineguns are legal to own, only machineguns manufactured and registered before May 19, 1986 are legal. Every machinegun that is legal for a non-dealer person to posess was manufactured 20+ years ago. This is why the price is so high. What there is is all there is. There can never be any new ones.

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By definition a short barreled rifle, or SBR, is a rifle (which is defined as a shoulder-fired, rifled bore firearm) with a barrel length of less than 16",
or an overall length of less than 26". In measuring barrel length you do it from the closed breech to the muzzle. On a folding stock weapon you
measure with the stock extended, provided the stock is not readily
detachable, and the weapon is meant to be fired from the shoulder. The rules are pretty cut-and-dry as to the definition of a SBR. If the overall length with stock is less than 26" you have an SBR. If the barrel itself is less than 16" you have an SBR. You can still buy or manufacture SBR's. You can buy one by filing a Form 4 or you can make one yourself by filing a Form 1 (we'll get to that later).

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18 U.S.C. 921(a)(24)

The terms “firearm silencer” and “firearm muffler” mean any device for silencing,
muffling, or diminishing the report of a portable firearm, including any combination
of parts, designed or redesigned, and intended for use in assembling or fabricating
a firearm silencer or firearm muffler, and any part intended only for use in such
assembly or fabrication.

Pretty specific here. If it makes your gun quieter, it is a silencer. At least one report that I have seen lists the reason for adding them to the NFA was for fear of poaching during the depression years, not for fear of them being used in other street crime. There is no "cutoff date" for legal suppressors. Suppressors are still being manufactured, and you can own a brand-spankin-new one if you wish. In fact, suppressor technology is still evolving and there are units out there that are very efficient (read: quiet).