80% gets you 10 years in Rhode Island

[GunLawyer001]

Federal law allows one to make a gun for their own use and purposes. How would John Moses Browning ever have gotten started?

State laws cannot supercede Federal laws. I would think this would be ripe for a challenge.

It's actually more complicated than that, kind of Byzantine; in SOME areas (like controlling air traffic) the Feds have taken the field and the states have no role. In other areas, authority is co-extensive, and the feds will restrict you and the states can restrict you further.

The Feds make weed illegal, so when the states say it's legal, it's still illegal. But where the Feds say (for example) that you can obtain rounds for your M-203 grenade launcher if you pay the tax, but your state outlaws all bombs, then you can't have bombs in your state.

There's another category, where Federal law explicitly says that states can't bar gay "marriage" and they can't legislate separate white & colored drinking fountains.

Bottom line, states ban all kinds of gun stuff that the Feds permit. Try and buy an AR-15 or some hollowpoints in NJ or NY.

[jthrelf]

The "gotcha" in the RI law is that it says the serial number must be placed by a federally recognized weapons manufacturer.

I'm federally recognized... To the tune of tens of thousands of dollars paid each year.....

[jthrelf]

So what's to stop EVERYBODY from registering exactly the same serial number? How funny would that be? Talk about a way to fuck up a database.

-Zach

I really like that idea!

[Royinmontco]

I'm federally recognized... To the tune of tens of thousands of dollars paid each year.....

I think most of us are.... but I suspect a halfway decent lawyer could argue that it means those holding a type 7 or up FFL.

[alpacaheat]

No. The SN doesn't make it a firearm. Finishing it does.

What if I call it an ongoing project and it's never "finished"?


Let's see, I can upgrade the trigger, the sights, springs, the stock, change the color...nah, don't think I'll ever be finished working on it.

[GunLawyer001]

What if I call it an ongoing project and it's never "finished"?


Let's see, I can upgrade the trigger, the sights, springs, the stock, change the color...nah, don't think I'll ever be finished working on it.

The govt makes the rules, so with guns, they define things the way the edge of quicksand is defined. You think you're on safe ground, right up until you're ankle-deep and sinking.

A gun can be a partially-finished frame or receiver, under some definitions at the state and local levels. Even after you "destroy it", it's still deemed a firearm if it's "readily restorable" by a master gunsmith at ATF using $500K worth of machinery and a warehouse of replacement parts. Look at some the tricks they pulled to declare that some upper receivers were firearms, after they built a frame to hold them and added some MG conversion parts (which are themselves defined as machineguns, so in effect ATF took an upper, added a machinegun to it from their spare parts inventory, then pretended to be amazed that they had a machinegun on the bench.)

When it comes to guns, the govt likes to put some hidden reefs in your safe harbor. I remember the open bolt MAC, the Streetsweeper, the Akins Accelerator, the bump stock, the pistol brace (redefinitions coming soon). All perfectly legal until they became felonies. The feds don't do this to plumbers or car buffs or dog fanciers, just the gun guys.

[vinnyg101]

"Ghost Gun Law", aimed at doing something about gun violence, Democrat-style.

https://patch.com/rhode-island/crans...ode-island-law

So the fall into no rights continues as we cowar and quarantine with our 2020 Independence daypractically canceled.... it seems that the intended purpose for our 1A and 2A is close to null & void.