Article in latest Shotgun News

[gunluvver]

There's a good article on preban legalities in the Jan. 20th issue of the Shotgun News. One paragraph really got me going. If I read it right, it says that if you have a preban AR lower receiver that has never been assembled as a preban rifle, that you can not assemble it as a preban now, and the burden of proof is on you if ever questioned about it. The same goes with putting a folder on a preban if it did not have a folder before preban. Any comments ?

[imanaknut]

That has always been one of the problems with the law. If the burden of proof is on you, the owner to prove that the rifle was built before the date, isn't that the same as calling you guilty until proven innocent? How could anyone possibly know when a rifle was build without doing a metallurgy study or checking any of the materials for whether or not it was available when the actual weapon of the same type was made?

[Circuits]

It doesn't quite work out that way, but close.

The government must prove you guilty of possessing a "semi-automatic assault weapon"... which they do by showing that it's got "Colt AR-15" on the side, for instance, or that it's got a detachable magazine, pistol grip and collapsing stock.

Once they've done that, you've got to prove that your possession is legal under the grandfather clause by showing that it was configured in a "SAAW" manner, and lawfully possessed on or before the effective date of the AW ban on 9/13/94.

So you're still innocent until proven guilty, but all they've got to prove is that your rifle meets the definition of a "SAAW" - and then you've got to show you qualify for the grandfather clause.

Now, if you can show why you had good reason to believe that it's grandfathered (reasonable to a jury), and ATF has no hard proof that it DOESN'T qualify for grandfathering, you'd probably get off. But if papa ATF's got it on their books as a stripped receiver, on 9/13/94 (and they did go around and take inventory at the major manufacturers after the law went into effect and noted which rifles (not bare receivers) qualified for grandfathering), then you'd be screwed.