Legality question

[Antixx]

Okay lets say that I could get my hands on a legal FA AK. Would it be legal for me to remove the original rear trunnion and replace it with a pistol trunnion then stick maybe a AMD barrel on it?? Therefore makeing a select fire FA AK pistol.

[imanaknut]

ATF regs do not allow a rifle to be converted to a pistol, or a pistol to a rifle. The dumb rule that once a rifle, always a rifle. I believe this also applies to NFA registered firearms.

[droog]

No it doesnt apply to that If you had a legal FA AK you can put anything you want on it.There was someone on Bowers board Subguns .com that was asking pretty much the same thing.The only odd thing that I can think of with NFA is you cant put a stock on a AOW. AMachine gun is a machine gun doesnt matter what you do to the barrel or How many grips or stocks you put on them they are still a machine gun.

[borsnake]

droog is correct, Registered FA receivers are exempt from everything. Remember, all laws such as 922r etc, including the now dead AW ban, only apply to SEMI-AUTOMATIC firearms (with detachable mags, blah blah blah). A machine gun is not semi-automatic.

Most of the M-16 owners I know usually ditch thier AR lowers once they get thier M-16's since they usually stock up on several length uppers and they don't want to be "tempted" to create an illegal SBR, AOW etc.

I never heard of anyone doing this but if I could go back to 1986, I would have registered an AK auto-sear, a la FNC, DIAS or lightning link. Since the sear would be considered the "machine gun", I would then be able build up a bunch of AKs in every conceivable configuration and just switch the sear from gun to gun.

ATF regs do not allow a rifle to be converted to a pistol, or a pistol to a rifle

Only half right. You can't take a rifle and create a pistol (no stock, less than 16" barrel) but you can create a rifle out of a pistol....and go back and forth. AR guys do this all the time. This is what the Thompson Contender court case was all about.

[droog]

The only probalem with that idea is that once you remove the sear from the host gun it would have to have a legal length barrel on it so it would not be to practicle on a AK because the barrels are not all that easy and quick to remove and install.You cant have a bunch of short barrellewd rifles laying around and only one sear.If you had a registered AR dias and one lower and ten barrels you would be ok but if you had 2 lowers and ten barrels and only one dias you would not. Confused? It makes my head hurt every time I think about this shit.

[DrugRunR]

I never heard of anyone doing this but if I could go back to 1986, I would have registered an AK auto-sear, a la FNC, DIAS or lightning link. Since the sear would be considered the "machine gun", I would then be able build up a bunch of AKs in every conceivable configuration and just switch the sear from gun to gun.

I know this is a month and 1/2 old thread but I just found it.

back in 1986, there was a company that tried to register AK "autosears".
Basically it was just the sear. You still had to drill a hole in the receiver.
Because of the fact that you had to drill a hole, then the ATF said NO on AK autosears.
Unlike the AR DIAS, which does not require any modification to a receiver (well some require milling)

[der Stahlgewehr]

I remember reading about this in Firepower Magazine at the time it happened in 1986. I've probably still got that issue "somewhere", since I'm a packrat. As I recall, some of the AK auto sears were approved, then ATF changed its mind shortly before the SHOT show that year. At the show, an ATF agent asked the author if he had converted his AK to use his registered sear yet. When the author told him he had not, the agent warned him it would be illegal for him to do so. However, previously registered AK sears which were already installed in converted rifles would be allowed to be kept by their owners. In essence, the sear became "married" to the rifle, because removal of the sear would give you 1) the registered AK sear and 2) a converted to full auto AK receiver. That would technically be illegal since only the sear is registered, not the converted full auto receiver, so you had to keep the two (receiver and sear) together at all times.

[warthog42]

Just so we are clear though, you CAN make a rifle out of a pistol.
Once a rifle, always a rifle but you can add a stock to a pistol and make it a rifle.
You just can't ever make it a pistol again.

[nfa1934]

You just can't ever make it a pistol again.

No, you can go back to pistol as long as it was a pistol first.

A T/C Contender that was originally a pistol can be assembled as either a pistol or a rifle, while a Contender that was originally a rifle can only be assembled as a rifle. If it's a pistol first, you can go back and forth.