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December 9th, 2014, 12:15 AM #1Member
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PA and Federal laws on custom building a gun?
I was at the gun show in Monroeville a couple weeks ago, and I saw some vendors selling unfinished receivers for an AR15 / M16 build. I don't know the details, but from what they said, it seems it is legal to build a gun of your own, you just can't sell it, and that's what those unfinished receivers were for. Not all the machining was done.
Also, from what I've been told, the AR15 / M16 design has tons of aftermarket parts, and only the lower receiver is serialized, so anything else can be changed.
How does that apply to semi-auto vs. full-auto? Would it still be illegal to make a custom full auto gun?
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December 9th, 2014, 12:19 AM #2Active Member
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Blue Mountain
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Re: PA and Federal laws on custom building a gun?
I'm not a lawyer. Most of my sources would be from reading this board. Check my answers for correctness.
It is perfectly legal to build your own firearm. It is also legal to sell that firearm, but you cannot build it with the intent to sell it. It is not legal to manufacture a full auto firearm without extensive licensing from the ATF.
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December 9th, 2014, 12:57 PM #3
Re: PA and Federal laws on custom building a gun?
feedback thread http://forum.pafoa.org/feedback-109/...aj-c-burg.html
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December 9th, 2014, 01:45 PM #4
Re: PA and Federal laws on custom building a gun?
You were looking at 80% lowers for AR's. You can take it home, finish it, and build either a pistol (barrel less than 16" with pistol buffer tube or Sig arm brace) or rifle (16" barrel and normal stock) to your liking without notifying anyone. If you want to configure it as a short barrel rifle (barrel less than 16" and normal stock) you have to pay the $200 tax and submit an ATF Form 1. To build a post 1986 new machine gun you would have to be an FFL 07 with SOT 02 (many fees and legitimate business owner). Indeed the AR lower is the only part that is considered a firearm and would be serialized. The upper with barrel and all the other parts are not regulated.
In America arms are free merchandise such that anyone who has the capital may make their houses into armories and their gardens into parks of artillery. - Ira Allen, 1796
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December 9th, 2014, 02:01 PM #5
Re: PA and Federal laws on custom building a gun?
Silly part of the law making the lower (considered the serialized frame in normal productions) the "firearm", you could alter the BCG in the upper to have a solid unmoving firing pin extending permanently from the bolt face, chamber a round, release the bolt via the bolt release, and fire the chambered round....but the "upper" isn't a firearm. (Maybe it is once it is so converted?)
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December 9th, 2014, 02:14 PM #6Active Member
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York Springs,
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Re: PA and Federal laws on custom building a gun?
Silly part of the law making the lower (considered the serialized frame in normal productions) the "firearm", you could alter the BCG in the upper to have a solid unmoving firing pin extending permanently from the bolt face, chamber a round, release the bolt via the bolt release, and fire the chambered round....but the "upper" isn't a firearm. (Maybe it is once it is so converted?)--Sam
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December 9th, 2014, 02:33 PM #7
Re: PA and Federal laws on custom building a gun?
uh.....what feeds the second and subsequent round(s)??? Oh...I see...my bad...the bolt release is on the lower....OK.....draw the charging handle back and release it by hand to fire the round....clumsy but could be done.... my point is, I could fire a round and yet the firing mechanism is not a firearm without the lower attached, unless there is something else I'm not thinking of.
Anyway...I'm kind of throwing the thread off subject. Sorry.Last edited by Bang; December 9th, 2014 at 02:44 PM.
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December 9th, 2014, 03:08 PM #8Active Member
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Re: PA and Federal laws on custom building a gun?
I could fire a round and yet the firing mechanism is not a firearm without the lower attached, unless there is something else I'm not thinking of.
Just because it doesn't have an AR-15 lower attached (however that might be made to happen) doesn't make it not a firearm.
Sometimes we all get a bit too hung up in the specific definitions of what is THE "firearm" for the purposes of transferring, shipping, etc, that we could lose sight of the "if it walks like a duck...it's a duck" factor.--Sam
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December 9th, 2014, 08:19 PM #9
Re: PA and Federal laws on custom building a gun?
Now you're applying common sense, which has little place in law.
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October 7th, 2019, 03:16 PM #10Junior Member
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Re: PA and Federal laws on custom building a gun?
I just realized how old this thread was so I'm responding like 5 years later. You do not have to get a $200 tax stamp if your AR Pistol Build starts as a Pistol. If you build it as a rifle first then decide to make it 16" or less then you have to forego the tax stamp. I am not a lawyer disclaimer.
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