"Pete C." wrote in
ster.com:


Doug White wrote:

"Pete C." wrote in news:4d18ae6c$0$15842
:


Ignoramus7943 wrote:

On 2010-12-27, Randy wrote:
On Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:55:04 -0500, Karl Townsend
wrote:

Record cold and snow in MN. I'll soon be locked in the shop for
the duration of winter and been casting about for a worthy
project.

I came accross this:
http://www.dsarms.com/prodinfo.asp?number=1001

Is this a good forging to start with? Anybody else done this?
Any heads up for problems? Any fixturing suggestions? I'll plan
on building quality fixtures to knock 'em out on the CNC mill.

Karl

As I understand it you can make one, but it is yours forever.
You
may
not legally sell it to anyone, ever. Cannot even be passed on
to
your
son/daughter. Or am I wrong?

I thought that the above is exactly correct.

i

I believe that is incorrect.

From the research I've done so far, it appears that you can build
your own firearms that are consistent with those you could legally
purchase at your local gun shop, are not required to put serial
numbers on them (though it's recommended), and can indeed sell or
transfer them with normal paperwork *occasionally*. If you were to
sell or transfer too often your transfer paperwork would be
rejected and you'd be told to
get
a manufacturer's license.

It is different if you want to produce an NFA firearm, which while
the paperwork still refers to "firearm" generically, excludes
"normal" firearms and only covers short barrel rifles, silencers
and other specific NFA arms. Even those can be transferred with
more
restrictions.

Of course if you plan to start one of these projects, you should do
your
own research to both verify that information as well as be sure you
understand every quirk of the related laws and paperwork. Also if
you plan any of these projects you need to check local/state laws
and perhaps move to a more favorable state (hint Iggy).

My understanding is that the BATF has gotten extra cranky in recent
years. There are cases where they have nailed gunsmiths for
restoring old/dmamged firearms because they crossed some imaginary
threshold of how much can be original, and how much can be replaced
before it is considered "manufacturing". Presumably, these problems
were for single firearms, but they were also being sold, or at least
the work was done for someone else. I belong to the American
Gunsmithing Association, and their latest magazine had a warning in
it to someone who was attempting what sounded like a simple
restoration job.

Doug White

Yes, I believe there is a pretty solid line between doing gunsmithing
as a business and manufacturing a firearm, and building your own
firearm personally and then at some later date selling or otherwise
transferring it, perhaps to fund your next project.

I think the difficulty is that the line is not "solid". It is open to
interpretation of the BATFE agent who decides to make your life
miserable. I'm sure there are plenty of agents who are decent hard
working folks trying to stopp the bad guys. There are also plenty of
cases where agents have decided to make a name for themselves by going
after someone when common sense would say the case was totally bogus.
The resulting legal hassles (or worse) can ruin your day/month/year/life.

Doug White