AR15 ?

[Shooter.250]

Hey Shooter,

First off - Welcome aboard, Second I think your wording used in your original question was odd at best, with the Media constantly running anti-gun stories every newscast, Most of us gun owners are on edge here, when someone comes along asking what the difference between an AR15 and an M16 is, but at the same time saying they served in the Military, Peoples hairs go up on edge.

The 'M' in M16 dosen't stand for Military -- It stands for Model as in M1911, M1903, M1917, M1 etc....The original "M16" as designed by Stoner was labelled an AR15, When the Army adopted it, it was changed to M16, then M16A1 and so on as improvements were made. For the record, I never served in the Military, But I do read a lot, What you are asking is easily found just by using "The Google" on the interwebs.

Legally, the BATFE considers owning any part that makes an M16 capable of Select fire, to be considered owning a Machice gun, So if you have an AR with an M16 selector installed, They view that as owning an M16 even though with just that one part, It's not capable of Select fire, That's our Government mentality for you. Most AR's built back in the 80's will have a mix of parts installed by whomever built them, back then surplus military parts were a lot easier to come by, But none of them had a M16 autosear installed and sold on the Cilvilian market, It was still illegal back then too.

Hope that helps.

TJB

This is the kind of response I was looking for and can't thank you enough.
Since all I seamed to be getting was BS I have been doing some google searching. And even with all the years I spent in the armed forces I never did pay attention to what M stood for although I did know that A1, A2 and so on was the next version and didn't always mean it was better than the previous.

Thanks again

[Gun]

Legally, the BATFE considers owning any part that makes an M16 capable of Select fire, to be considered owning a Machice gun, So if you have an AR with an M16 selector installed, They view that as owning an M16 even though with just that one part, It's not capable of Select fire, That's our Government mentality for you. Most AR's built back in the 80's will have a mix of parts installed by whomever built them, back then surplus military parts were a lot easier to come by, But none of them had a M16 autosear installed and sold on the Cilvilian market, It was still illegal back then too.

Civilians cannot own M16 rifles. At one time, so long ago, one could purchase a drop-in auto sear, and the other parts to convert a semi-auto AR15 to FA. This conversion did not make the AR15 an M16.

[amstel78]

DIAS or FA FCG and bolt. Illegal on both counts unless you have the proper paperwork with the feds. Easy enough to do though... just as easy as making your semi-auto AK FA. I won't divulge any more than that other than to say that if you have internat access, time, and parts, anything is possible.

[amstel78]

Legally, the BATFE considers owning any part that makes an M16 capable of Select fire, to be considered owning a Machice gun

I hope you understand that the ruling doesn't apply to any and all parts; otherwise you may be construed as implying that everyone with FA bolt carriers in their ARs are breaking the law when that's simply not the case. Just saying...

[mongo]

Civilians cannot own M16 rifles. At one time, so long ago, one could purchase a drop-in auto sear, and the other parts to convert a semi-auto AR15 to FA. This conversion did not make the AR15 an M16.

I guess I'll have to check again. But my regestered Colt says "Colt M16A1" on the left side of the reciever. Bought it for $1200 from a class lll dealer years ago when I still had dark colored hair....

[caferacer]

(for the sake of this discussion we will assume this is being done following all BATF regulations)
M-16 is the military designation for the rifle, so ONLY a military weapon is an M-16,
the civilian semi auto version is the AR-15, so if you were to convert an AR-15 to full auto capability, you would have a full auto class III AR-15, not an M-16, because it not a military weapon, even though they are identical
just as if you took a 1970 CUDA hard top with a 318 CI engine, cut the roof off and installed a new crate 426 HEMI engine, it would still NOT be a 1970 HEMI convertible, even though it would be identical to one, it would be a "clone"
just like your (hypothetical) full auto AR-15

[mongo]

On and approved regidtration form the descripition is on line 4. It will have the name and address of the manafactur, type of firearm (short barreled rifle,machne gun,destructive device,any other weapon,etc) caliber or guage, model, length ( of barrel, overall length), and serial number. If a firearm is converted ( short barrel rifle, shotgun ( MG's can no longer be made), the manafacture would be you if you yourself did the conversion. This mustbe permintly ingrave on the firearm's receiver. The model would be the original firearm's description. Fot example: an original Colt M16, would have the manafacture to be "COLT" and the model would say M16. A converted AR15 would have the converters name and address, and model would say AR15. You can call the firearm whatever you want, but what goes on the registration form is controled by the ATF. { these posts should be in the NFA section}

[Gun]

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_23/380973_.html

Discussion about M16s and civilians on ARFCOM.

[arjohnson]

I just read an article about fully automatic AR15s. I didn't think this was true.
I believe you can make an AR 15 fully automatic with a fire selector. But then doesn't this make it an M16?
Since the AR15s are just civilian semiauto lookalike s of the military fully auto M16

There's a whole lotta in this thread.

[Connal]

Civilians cannot own M16 rifles. At one time, so long ago, one could purchase a drop-in auto sear, and the other parts to convert a semi-auto AR15 to FA. This conversion did not make the AR15 an M16.

I guess I'll have to check again. But my regestered Colt says "Colt M16A1" on the left side of the reciever. Bought it for $1200 from a class lll dealer years ago when I still had dark colored hair....

Civilians still can. You would need to find an M16 that was on all the right papers, find someone wanting to sell, follow the laws, and have the money. But they still pop up from time to time. Last one I saw was around $25,000. A bit more than I have laying around.

As for the RDIAS, they pop up from time to time as well. Usually around $12,000.

They are hard to come by these days. You would never see it in a dunhams, or a dicks. But class 3 dealers do come across them from time to time.