The guy wondering about the serial number on his DD as in a 37mm flare or grenade launcher. When you do the paper work for the BATF they will put in the serial number they want you to use. Still first things first get with a class III dealer and have him help walk you through filling out the forms before you buy any thing. then once you have the paper work done go buy what you want and it will tell you on your form what to put in a serial number. I know it sounds back wards but this is the BATF we are talking about. do it their way. FYI for the rest of you that are out there. do you know that every phone call you place to the BATF is recorded with you name and phone number? also everytime you log into the BATF website. Plus now when you buy any gun. of any type. Guess what baby they get you coming and going. I saw another guy ask about M16 parts in an AR15 guess what many manufacturers use parts out of the same bins to build both AR15s and M16s Go figure right. You may get a bolt that fits either. same for a hammer. Not as often for a selector or a disconnect. Plus the BATF gets to pick the ammo they wish to try in you firearm to see if it will fire full auto. as in 2 or more times. So they can throw in their funny ammo and make it shoot 2 times and you get 5 years in the feds country club. dray
Talk about misinformation and rampant paranoia. Just so anyone else reading this thread doesn't get the wrong idea:
The ATF does not assign serial numbers. If a firearm already has a serial number, that's what you use. If it doesn't, you create one yourself.
You don't need a Class III dealer to assist you with a Form 1. In fact, if I were a Class III dealer, I might not want to waste my time assisting people with Form 1s if they weren't actually buying anything from me.
I have no information about whether phone calls to the ATF are logged. And I bet the this guy doesn't either. But so what if it is? The only time I call the ATF is to check on statuses of Form 1s or Form 4s. And they already have my information on those forms, so I don't care if they write down that I called.
I don't log into the ATF's website. I visit it. And logging the IP address of every visitor is something that every website does. Duh. It's not a grand conspiracy. It's just how the internet works.
They also don't know when I buy any gun of any type. If you buy a gun from a dealer and they call the 4473 in, then the government could theoretically keep a permanent record, but they're not supposed to. My 4473s don't get called in because I have a CCW permit and that means no call-in for Kentucky. So the dealer's bound book has a record of the sale, and the ATF can look at that when they want to, but it's not in the ATF's records. Also, I've bought half of my guns in private sales. The ATF has no record of those transactions at all.
M16 hammers are different from AR15 hammers, and I don't know of a single manufacturer that's using M16 hammers in AR15s. I don't think this guy can name one either.
The ATF does get to test your gun, if you're ever formally accused of having an illegal machine gun, using whatever testing medium (ammo) that they want. But if they want to convict you in a court of law, it better be standard, off-the-shelf ammo. You're still innocent until proven guilty in a courtroom, and your defense attorney will have an opportunity to hire an independent expert to examine the evidence (your gun) and do his own tests, and he will use standard ammo. The ATF's expert will have a hard time explaining why he used ammo with soft primers that were seated high if he wants to get a conviction.
In short: take off your tin foil hat and put down the tainted Kool-Aid. The world is scary enough without you making things up.
Aaron
