Building a suppressor for personal use

[Hop]

Semperfi... that was funny.

Amafrank... has there ever been a challenge to the ATF and their seemingly ever changing make it up as they go along rules? Rules and guidelines are not laws. I would think a suppressor "should" only be a suppressor when it's assembled as a "system" that can be attached to a weapon and reduces the sound signature. Much like leaving your SBR's short barrel at home and taking the registered receiver across state lines means the gun is not in it's SBR configuration therefore not an SBR.

 

[SemperFiUSMC]

Semperfi... that was funny.

Nah. If you want to see funny check out this thread on nfatalk.

NFA Talk

Page 2 has the funny stuff.

 

[amafrank]

Semperfi... that was funny.

Amafrank... has there ever been a challenge to the ATF and their seemingly ever changing make it up as they go along rules? Rules and guidelines are not laws. I would think a suppressor "should" only be a suppressor when it's assembled as a "system" that can be attached to a weapon and reduces the sound signature. Much like leaving your SBR's short barrel at home and taking the registered receiver across state lines means the gun is not in it's SBR configuration therefore not an SBR.

I don't know of anyone who has challenged them in court.....its very expensive and there is no guarantee you'll win anything. I do know why they did the rulings however.....
For those of you who don't remember the 80's here is a story. Sionics went out of business leaving tons of parts and pieces for their suppressors. The stuff was all sold at a bankruptcy auction and there was a lot of it. What you have now is a bunch of enterprising business owners with a lot of suppressor parts to sell. They made up packages of internal parts-baffles, eyelets and wipes along with endcaps for any cal the cans were built in originally. Another enterprising company had a bunch of tubing that was already cut to length and ready for all these internals only no threads. I remember wandering around the gunshows and finding one guy with a bag of internal parts for $50, another guy with tubing for $50 and another guy with a set of instructions to build using all the aforementioned parts. They suggested using set screws or glue or a number of alternative means of retaining parts. ATF got a bit upset that guys were (or could be) building unregistered cans using all this stuff. Even though all the bags of parts and the instructions told you how to fill out a form 1 and that it had to be done to be legal ATF decided it was too enticing and came out with the ruling that any part of a suppressor was a suppressor for the purpose of the regs unless you had a manufacturers license. In a sad way it makes sense but that doesn't make it right. You can fight them if you want but it takes a lot of cash and you can't outspend them.

Hope that answers your question

Frank

 

[Hop]

Thanks for the history lesson. More of their "make it up as they go along non-law ever changing BS rules".

 

[KJQ6945]

Nah. If you want to see funny check out this thread on nfatalk.

NFA Talk

Page 2 has the funny stuff.

Pure comedy gold there, well done sir!

 

[Jacobcuvelier]

This is a tricky one... I'd definitely give the ATF a call because it's definitely not worth $250k and 10 yrs in a fed pen

 

[amafrank]

This is a tricky one... I'd definitely give the ATF a call because it's definitely not worth $250k and 10 yrs in a fed pen

giving the atf a call is about the most useless thing you can do. Whatever the person you're talking to says to you is meaningless....its their opinion and since most of them have no idea what you're talking about its a bad opinion. The only way to get a halfway useful opinion from atf is to write a letter to the tech branch in west virginia. The reply you get may actually hold some meaning for you and you alone. The big issue with them is that they send out conflicting letters to people that write in asking the same or nearly the same question. Even if you call atf who do you call? Who are you talking to? The customer service people at NFA branch aren't lawyers and they aren't responsible for knowing the regs. Why would you expect an answer from them on a legal question? If you call your local atf office you get the same thing.....someone who really has no reason to have any idea what you're talking about but likely thinks they should and gives you the answer they think you should have. Nope......calling atf is the wrong answer.

Frank