Legal Full Auto Explained: Building or Buying a Machine Gun

Today’s questions: How can you Buy or Build a Legal Machine Gun? What about machine gun registration? Are full auto firearms even legal? The Armed Attorneys break down the gun law on full auto firearms.

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Richard D. Hayes, II: @TXGunLaw
Emily Taylor: @2A_Attorney

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PARTIAL AUTO-TRANSCRIPT
today we're talking about whether or not you can legally build a machine ... begin our conversation we have to know what we're talking about when we say machine gun and what we're talking about is something that fires automatically more than one shot from a single function of the trigger now there's a lot of other devices out there that replicate what a machine gun may look like or operate like and for purposes of our discussion i'm going to set those aside for a moment we're just talking about you know sincere designed and manufactured to be a machine gun from the beginning and not maybe some item that might transform it to be very similar so we're talking about guns that were built for the purposes of shooting automatically so this comes from the firearm owner's protection act and essentially any machine gun manufactured on or before may 19 1986 had to have been registered in order to be legal under federal law and so what we see nowadays anything manufactured after that date it's going to be an uphill batter battle as to whether that thing is going to be considered legal or not so talk let's talk about legal machine guns first in yeah well you know we have essentially a very small market supply of legal machine guns because the only ones in circulation for private civilian ownership are the ones that were already constructed and registered when may 19 1986 swung through our calendar so that firearm owner's protection act date is hard and fast there is nothing new they are incredibly expensive really hard to get your hands on because anything that is manufactured after 1986 may 19 1986 is just for police or military uses and so it is highly unlikely that anyone here watching unless you are police or military has actually touched a modern fully automatic rifle yeah and to answer our question of the day who can build really at the end of the day it's manufacturers for police and military use only so if you're a private civilian you maybe have a milling machine 3d printer or something like that if you were to manufacture you know a gun that fires automatically more than one shot from a single function of the trigger because we don't have time travel and you couldn't go back and build it and register it back before 1986 it's not going to be legal under federal law yeah and i mean to even just just expand that a little bit we have this federal definition that says that any machine gun component is itself a machine gun so if you have a 3d printer you get the plans for a full auto sear and you print it out even if you have you just have that seer you have not actually put a weapon together you're in possession of an illegal machine gun you're going to be fined up to a quarter million dollars i mean there's there is federal prison time associated that's a big deal so i mean it's something that unfortunately is hard and fast yeah it's a really important point that emily made and so i think it bears repeating unlike a short barreled rifle a short barreled shotgun where the disassembled item itself wouldn't be a shortbread rifle or short barreled shotgun having any of the machine gun components even if it's not fully assembled is going to be considered a machine gun so i just want to make sure we're crystal clear on that because this gets to kind of the point of our kind of pro tip and what we see in our practice which is oil filters solvent traps red coat hangers things like that items you can buy online or you see advertised online that may transform firearms into fully automatic machine guns so what's kind of what do you see in your practice emily if you have bought something on the internet that says that it may transform your rifle into a fully automatic weapon you do have a problem and in part the reason you have a problem is the atf ...

you

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[SUBLIMEO]

I graduated from MCRD San Diego 4 days before my 18th birthday back in 2001. Really loved and became very proficient with the M16, M249, 50 cal, M203 grenade launcher and so on. Wish I cherished those experiences that much more. Was always so taken back and questioned why we couldn’t personally own these weapons…We should be banning idiots not guns.

[opencarry]

The definition of tyranny; what is legal for the government, but not it's citizenry.

[stevektx]

It’s funny that “ATF POLICY” changing all the time, indicates that it is law. Either we as US Citizens demand laws to abide by or the unconstitutional ATF “policy” is not binding. Where am I missing it?

[fullautoexperience]

FYI, ATF licensed FFL07/02SOT holders can legally manufacture/assemble new machine guns for R&D & whatever other uses they deem appropriate as long as the firearms stay in company inventory. Can only be sold/transferred to other FFL/SOT holders & gov agencies though. ITAR registration also a factor.

[RL-RL]

Funny fact is, years ago many AK aftermarket trigger kits were sold with an auto sear. This has been proven many times over on firearms forums. The people that bought them had no idea they purchased a part that made their AK full auto until they installed it.

[Texas_Swift]

Do what you want and don’t tell anyone. It’s easily done. Telling others and showing others is what gets you in trouble.

[zanefrost]

So what y'all are basically saying is that the federal government is enforcing unjust laws and we are in a sense rapidly headed towards the state of Australia?

[jakobroynon-fisher]

Wouldn't you agree though, that gun laws are unconstitutional? After all, the Supreme Court has previously held that all arms and equipment that are part of the ordinary military equipment, or that can be shown to contribute to the common defense, or could reasonably be show to contribute to the proficiency or efficiency of a well-regulated Militia, are all covered by the 2nd Amendment (see U.S. v. Jack Miller, et al. from 1934)...

This is before a list of other things I can bring up, let alone the history and textual considerations... (Note: I am just a layman, but being that it's not tough to read what someone has said or look up the translation of Latin phrases, it seems to me that I've got a good grip on the context.)

[CharlesEakins]

Has anyone challenged the 1986 ban? The point of the 2nd amendment is to be able to defend yourself from a tyrannical government.

[killer]

Here's the problem with the "under federal law" bit. The 10th Amendment, which forbids the federal level from assuming undelegated power. The power to regulate private firearms ownership, in any capacity, was NEVER delegated to the federal level by any part of the constitution and no such power was delegated by amendments 11-27, either.

Why no one has brought this up in any challenges to federal gun restrictions is beyond me because the 10th ALONE renders all federal gun restrictions null and void by default.

[ChristaFree]

Ive lived long enough to have shot one in the 80's.

This law needs to be repealed. Current situations worldwide highlight the need for repeal.

[craigg]

WOW I'm getting old, I remember stores sold full auto weapons, this one gun shop had two maxwells machine guns for sale. they were from WWI, I think. if I'm remembering right, they only wanted like $700 per, they also had one of those 20MM rifles on skids. this was the 70's. man what those guns go for today. but I also remember 60"s corvettes being used cars and could buy one for under $3K all day long.

[phiberoptik]

Be prepared to shell out $12K or more for one of the weapon systems already in the registry. These things are not cheap or easily obtained.

[aboringsandwich]

Your compliance ensures their control... I do not support participating in a federal gun registry...

Abolish the ATF, repeal the NFA GCA and Hughes Amendment...

[RelaxedEZ]

When did lawyers give up defending actual constitutional law. Like shall not be infringed means absolutely nothing to a lawyer, politicians and definitely not the illegal agency of the ATF. The more we comply the more we loose!

[amym]

Wish you guys could have covered when you CAN build a legal machine gun as a dealer and basic steps on what would be needed to become legally able to build a machine gun.

[Superbird]

I've recently found your channel and I love it! We've been needing a channel like this. Keep up the good work!

[majorhawker]

NEVER talk to the Let an Atty. do it for you. From a Retired Cop.

[michaelhenline]

Shockingly low number of subscribers considering the high-quality content! Great information, well-delivered and good grief is Emily beautiful...

[jayski]

I've never been a fan of machine guns due to the cost of ammunition these days. You need a government agency providing your ammo when several seconds of trigger time can send a couple of hundred dollars downrange. But the definition in this video, of multiple rounds per one function of the trigger qualifying as a machine gun makes me wonder? Does that mean that the old pepper pot derringers with 4 to 6 barrels firing simultaneously constitute a machine gun? Or conversely, does that mean that a Gatling style gun is not a machine gun because each barrel is fired one at a time? Of course I know that both of these may qualify for the exemption due to their age but what about modern replicas?