Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association
Results 1 to 3 of 3
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Poconos, Pennsylvania
    (Monroe County)
    Posts
    76
    Rep Power
    429509

    Default 922(r) Compliance Regarding a Safir T14 Shotgun

    Ok, well I'm starting this thread for those following the thread on the Safir T14 shotgun because there are concerns about 922(r) compliance with the T14 especially relating to the use of high capacity magazines (greater than 5 rounds). Since the International Firearm Corporation (IFC) .410 ARU is also imported and based of the Safir 14 design (if not actually manufactured by Safir) then the same questions about 922(r) compliance apply to that AR upper conversion.

    The ATI Omni Hybrid .410 is supposedly made in the USA although it is also closely based on the Safir T-14 design. However, being it is US made it is not imported and therefore not subject to 922(r).

    There are a lot of questions whether the T14 is subject to 922(r), and if so, in what configuration.

    There are a lot of gray areas concerning federal code and BATF rulings. You almost need to be a lawyer to interpret the code alone, but then you add in BATF rulings, studies and letters to the overlapping menagerie of code and you end up with one big quagmire of federal swamp soup.

    This is my personal understanding of the laws as they stand on this date. I'm not a lawyer and I do not give legal advise. There are a lot of web pages on the internet which have information related to 922(r) compliance. My suggestion is you find as many of those as you can, read them entirely then search out and find the actual federal codes they reference, then read those and understand them as best you can. You'll then find that there are many overlapping federal codes, which reference other federal code or IRS code which then reference other obscure “rulings” that are very difficult to find and really aren't law at all but are treated as law because they pertain to the Attorney General's power to make certain determinations under the federal laws in place...

    What is 922(r) and how does it pertain to my T14?

    922(r) is short hand for Title 18 of the U.S. Code (18 USC), Chapter 44 Section 922 , Paragraph R which states;

    “It shall be unlawful for any person to assemble from imported parts any semiautomatic rifle or any shotgun which is identical to any rifle or shotgun prohibited from importation under section 925(d)(3) of this chapter as not being particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes except that this subsection shall not apply to:
    (1) the assembly of any such rifle or shotgun for sale or distribution by a licensed manufacturer to the United States or any department or agency thereof or to any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision thereof; or
    (2) the assembly of any such rifle or shotgun for the purposes of testing or experimentation authorized by the Attorney General.”

    Now how does this pertain to the T14 that your purchased as a complete shotgun, or the T14 upper that you purchased and placed on your own lower?

    First, if you placed a T14 upper on your own lower, by law you have become a “maker” of a firearm. This is slightly different than being a “manufacturer”. However, you've just assembled a shotgun which is identical to a shotgun prohibited from importation under section 925(d)(3).

    925(d)(3) refers to Title 18 of the U.S. Code (18 USC), Chapter 44 Section 925 , Paragraph D, Subsection 3 which states;

    (d) The Attorney General shall authorize a firearm or ammunition to be imported or brought into the United States or any possession thereof if the firearm or ammunition—

    (3)
    is of a type that does not fall within the definition of a firearm as defined in section 5845(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and is generally recognized as particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes, excluding surplus military firearms, except in any case where the Attorney General has not authorized the importation of the firearm pursuant to this paragraph, it shall be unlawful to import any frame, receiver, or barrel of such firearm which would be prohibited if assembled

    Now I am going to save you some time in searching out Section 5845(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and tell you that this section of code refers to Title II (Class 3) weapons, Machine Guns, Suppressors, SBS, SBR, DD or AOW. Most of this code does not apply to the T14 unless you are making it into a SBS or AOW which requires a whole other set of rules, forms, approvals, tax and stamp. It does however contain one section which is important in that it legally defines the word “make” as it applies to firearms.

    (i) Make
    The term “make”, and the various derivatives of such word, shall include manufacturing (other than by one qualified to engage in such business under this chapter), putting together, altering, any combination of these, or otherwise producing a firearm.

    So to sum that up, if you put together from parts or alter a firearm, you are a “maker” of a firearm.

    So where are we at this point? The code above has established that if you mounted a T14 upper on to a lower that you either purchased or put together yourself, you are a maker of a firearm.

    And if you purchased a T14 as a complete firearm, but modified it in any way, you are a maker of a firearm. Stepping ahead just a bit, if you put 13 round magazine into the T14 when it was only approved for importation with a 5 round magazine, you've just modified the firearm and become a maker...

    Now back to 925(d)(3), what does this mean?

    This section of code states that if a weapon is not a title II weapon, and is generally recognized as particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes it shall be authorized by the Attorney General to be imported or brought into the United States or any possession thereof UNLESS the Attorney General has not authorized the importation of the firearm pursuant to this paragraph, then it shall be unlawful to import any frame, receiver, or barrel of such firearm which would be prohibited if assembled.

    Long story short, as long as it is not a Title II weapon, and the Attorney General has not "not authorized" the importation because it is not suitable or readily adaptable to sporting purposes, it is authorized to be imported...

    The problem now is that the Attorney General, by way of the BATF, has made a ruling on the importation of shotguns which are not suitable or readily adaptable to sporting purposes.

    Now this is where it really gets gray, cloudy and convoluted. So, how does a person know if the imported firearm they own has been determined to be suitable or readily adaptable to sporting purposes? What you believe is a sporting purpose does not apply in this case. Shooting 3 gun competitions or shooting at your range or back yard, is not considered sporting purposes according to the BATF. The AG determines (without any federal code as a guideline) what you can use a firearm for that is considered sporting. And what they did was create a “sporting purposes” test.

    You won't find this information easily, it is scattered among thousands of other BATF rulings, studies and letters. This website has the best summary of the “sporting purposes” test and how it applies to imported rifles, shotguns and firearms assembled from imported parts.

    http://www.reevesdola.com/wp-content...Parts-Rule.pdf

    The final criteria adopted by ATF for non-sporting shotguns are the following:

    • Folding, telescoping, or collapsible stock
    •Bayonet lug
    •Flash suppressor
    •Magazine over 5 rounds or a drum magazine
    •Grenade launcher mount
    •Light enhancing device
    •Excessive weight (greater than 10 pounds for 12-gauge or smaller)
    •Excessive bulk (greater than 3 inches in width and/or greater than 4 inches in depth)

    Some T14's had fixed stocks, some have telescoping stocks. If it has a telescopic stock, is is not authorized for importation.

    Most all T14's had flash suppressors, and were not authorized for importation.

    If the T14 has a magazine capacity over 5 rounds, it was not authorized for importation.

    If you mount a tactical light on your T14, it is not authorized for importation.

    All AR platform rifles (and in this case the T14 shotgun) are over 4” in depth and therefore are not authorized for importation.

    So as you can see under the current regulations and guidelines the T14 can not be imported into the USA and all T14 shotguns are subject to 922(r) simply because they are based on the AR platform and fail the sporting purposes test on the excessive bulk clause (and possibly others). I'm not sure exactly when our T14's were imported by ATI, and if at that time they were legally imported. Perhaps ATI imported only the uppers and mounted them on domestic lowers and already installed a domestic flash hider. However, only ATI could answer that question and my personal attempt to get an answer from ATI regarding this question remains unanswered. But regardless, at this time they are not legally importable so if you make or modify a T14 it has to meet the requirements of Section 478.39.

    Section 478.39, now how did we get to Section 478.39? Section 478.39 refers to the implementing regulations covering Assembly of semiautomatic rifles or shotguns in Title 27, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 478, Section 478.39 (formerly Part 178, Section 178.39) which prohibit assembly of semiautomatic rifle or shotgun that contains more than 10 of the imported parts listed in paragraph (c) of the regulation.

    478.39 Assembly of semiautomatic rifles or shotguns.
    (a) No person shall assemble a semiautomatic rifle or any shotgun using more than 10 of the imported parts listed in paragraph (c) of this section if the assembled firearm is prohibited from importation under section 925(d)(3) as not being particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes.
    (b) The provisions of this section shall not apply to:
    (1) The assembly of such rifle or shotgun for sale or distribution by a licensed manufacturer to the United States or any department or agency thereof or to any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision thereof; or
    (2) The assembly of such rifle or shotgun for the purposes of testing or experimentation authorized by the Director under the provisions of § 478.151; or
    (3) The repair of any rifle or shotgun which had been imported into or assembled in the United States prior to November 30, 1990, or the replacement of any part of such firearm.
    (c) For purposes of this section, the term imported parts are:

    Note: This regulation provides a list of 20 parts the BATF considers major components of rifles and shotguns, and establishes the rule that 922(r) is violated only if the non-sporting semiautomatic rifle or non-sporting shotgun is assembled with more than 10 imported parts of the 20 parts listed in the regulation, as follows:

    (1) Frames, receivers, receiver castings, forgings or stampings
    (2) Barrels
    (3) Barrel extensions
    (4) Mounting blocks (trunions)
    (5) Muzzle attachments
    (6) Bolts
    (7) Bolt carriers
    (8) Operating rods
    (9) Gas pistons
    (10) Trigger housings
    (11) Triggers
    (12) Hammers
    (13) Sears
    (14) Disconnectors
    (15) Buttstocks
    (16) Pistol grips
    (17) Forearms, handguards
    (18) Magazine bodies
    (19) Followers
    (20) Floorplates

    The minimum foreign made part count you can achieve and still have a T14 is 5, the bolt, bolt carrier, barrel, piston and possibly an operating rod if the BATF counts the sleeve of the piston as the piston, and the rest as an operating rod. (This is my own opinion and not that of the BATF). That is if you use a domestic made magazine. (There were no domestic made magazines for the T14 until ATI just recently released their own Omni Hybrid .410 which is based on the T14 design.) So if you convert everything else to domestic made parts, you could use the Safir or IFC high capacity magazines, and still be under the 10 foreign made parts or less. (5 shotgun + 3 magazine = 8)

    The parts of a T14 that you can convert are;
    Frames, (upper and lower receiver and the buffer tube)
    Muzzle attachment (flash hider)
    Trigger housing (is part of the lower receiver)
    Trigger
    Hammer
    Sear
    Disconnector (all four are part of the fire control group, lower parts kit)
    Butt stock
    Pistol Grip
    Forearm, Hand Guard

    The Section 478.39 parts listed that a T14 does not have and therefore can not be counted
    Barrel extension
    Mounting block (trunnion)

    Which leaves these 8 as foreign parts
    Barrel
    Piston
    Operating Rod
    Bolt
    Bolt Carrier
    Magazine Body
    Follower
    Floor Plate

    Since the two most difficult parts to covert are the upper receiver and front rail you could leave those unconverted, convert everything else listed above, and you'll still be 922(r) compliant even if you use a foreign made magazine. You'll be right at 10 parts.

    So in summary, A T14 upper mounted on a totally domestic complete lower, with the flash hider either removed or changed to a domestic flash hider, will be 922(r) compliant with a Safir or IFC magazine.

    However, it is always nice to have as much cushion as possible and therefore replacing the upper and front rail with a domestic made part will give you a cushion of 2 parts in your favor should there ever be any question as to whether or not your T14 is 922(r) compliant. Because after all, only the BATF can make a final determination as to whether it is, or is not, 922(r) compliant.

    References:

    https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/925
    https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/5845
    https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/27/478.39
    http://blog.joehuffman.org/2009/08/1...-for-shotguns/
    https://www.ar15.com/forums/armory/-/1-177741/?
    http://www.reevesdola.com/wp-content...Parts-Rule.pdf

    Hope this helps.

    RD Out...
    Last edited by ranchdude; February 5th, 2018 at 12:38 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2015
    Location
    Carnation, Washington
    Posts
    8
    Rep Power
    0

    Default Re: 922(r) Compliance Regarding a Safir T14 Shotgun

    Ranch Dude this helps a ton!

    I appreciate the write up.

    I am 922 complaint! This write up added peace of mind.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Poconos, Pennsylvania
    (Monroe County)
    Posts
    76
    Rep Power
    429509

    Default Re: 922(r) Compliance Regarding a Safir T14 Shotgun

    Glad to help AR Bro!

Similar Threads

  1. Safir Arms T14
    By cruzans in forum Shotguns
    Replies: 129
    Last Post: September 16th, 2020, 12:41 PM
  2. Safir T14
    By cruzans in forum Shotguns
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: July 12th, 2011, 08:49 PM
  3. SKS 922 compliance
    By NikeBauer21 in forum Rifles
    Replies: 12
    Last Post: May 24th, 2011, 07:53 PM
  4. Compliance
    By PureRockFury in forum General
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: December 28th, 2007, 12:42 PM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •