How do they get caught?

I would guess that most are discovered during encounters with LE for unrelated issues.

Having an illegal one is kind of pointless given there are no times you can really use it. Shooting a home invader with an illegal full auto is obviously not a good idea and it would be too risky to shoot outside. If the world collapses just convert one then.

If the world collapses just convert one then.

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Assuming of course that a fully automatic weapon would even be necessary. Wars, revolutions, and various other degrees and types of conflict have been fought very effectively with non-FA guns for centuries now. And if ammo becomes a little scarce during said theoretical conflict, well, FA would be downright wasteful But I digress.

Is there a database or listing of high-profile FA seizures anywhere? I'd be curious to know exactly what percentage of confiscated arms are FA or NFA.

Is there a database or listing of high-profile FA seizures anywhere? I'd be curious to know exactly what percentage of confiscated arms are FA or NFA.

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Couldn't find one, but did find this
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcfullau.html

Heard two stories here actually, one was a guy in california that showed up to a public range with a full auto AK 47 and let loose with it. Another one was some guy with a SKS that fired fully auto probably due to a stuck firing pin and didn't want to change it because he liked it that way.

Good question and an easy answer.

1. People who break the law tend to hang around other that do or are shuned for doing so.

2. People who break laws get caught at some point.

3. Once caught, it is common for law breakers to implicate others so they don't have to serve the time they should.


Your other question.

SBS or SBR is easy to see, full auto is not. More than a few LEO's have handled firearms that I have and had no clue why I needed "special" papers for them. For good or bad many that might need to rely on a firearm for their job know little about them but many jobs exist where people don't really understand what they are doing. Further it would be pretty easy to convert many semi to full autos back to semi state for travel, not so if you have cut a barrel.


In the end, if you have something to loose you will. It's only money.

There's always people like Harold Finch of the Northwest Arkansas Milita, who sent registered letters to the Arkansas AG, Govenor, and other agencies telling them of the illegality of NFA registery and that his group were building full auto stens and 1919s for "Milita use only".

He also had vids on the internet of him and his group firing the same full auto weapons. Eventually the Feds got tired of his rantings and arrested him. He of course was conviced and sentenced to prison, but I can't remember the particular charge or lenth of sentence.

Loose lips sink ships.

I hear auto fire in the distance from time to time on the public land I shoot on, and feel a tinge of envy as I don't have the money to pacify the bureaucrats and their unconstitutional tax laws to enjoy the same privelege. Calling the police has never even crossed my mind.

Recently a law was passed outlawing fireworks here. You'd be surprised at the number of neighbors who sit near their phones itching to report their neighbors for shooting off a bottle rocket on the Fourth of July.

"One nation of State Informants, under God..."

I would believe short barreled shotguns are far more common than full auto. Hell it's hard enough to feed a regular rifle than a full auto rifle. Although I know someone around here either has something full auto or knows someone who does. Legal or not I have no idea as it's none of my business and it's far enough off that it's probably not a danger to me. Although it sure perked my ears up, hadn't heard that sound since I was a teenager.

Oh by the way....they get caught because they run their mouths, have nosey neighbors or it's found as a result of another charge.

A few years ago a friend and I took my .50 BMG out onto public land to shoot one afternoon. A .50 is pretty loud and the sound carries a long way. Anyway we had been out there about half an hour, and we saw a pickup pull up to the edge of the field where we were shooting. We watched the truck a few minutes to see where they were going. (They were behind us). After seeing several people get out and stand by the truck a few minutes, and seeing that a couple of the people were small (kids) we waved to the people, they waved back, and we indicated that hey should come up to where we were.

They did drive up to where we had the guns set up and got out and asked what we were shooting. I had a .50 BMG, a .30 BMG, and a DP-28 set up to shoot. I showed them the weapons and asked the kids if they would like to pull the trigger on the tripod mounted .50 and they eagerly said yes. We let them fire 2 or 3 rounds each, gave them the brass, and let them watch while we finished shooting the guns.

I would guess that most illegal guns are discovered when someone shoots them, or as indicated earlier, when interacting with LEO's on other issues.

Some of the things I hear just amaze me. I have one co-worker in particular who has bragged about continuing to CCW when he drove down to Mexico, he said he just kept his P11 in his pocket and didn't say anything to the Border Patrol.

He also recently talked about going to a knob creek style machine gun shoot so he could learn how to modify his WASR to fire in full auto. I told him that I really doubted anyone there would be willing to help as it would mean a nice long stay in a federal penitentiary and he just scoffed at me.

Now this guy isn't dumb, maybe ignorant of the laws or just naive. I'm waiting for the day that he doesn't show up for work because he is in jail awaiting trial.

To be honest....if I were inclined to go to mexico these days i'd probably take something with me also. It definately isn't a place to go to party anymore!

They get caught because they have to run their mouths and not keep them hidden. If you don't want to get in trouble for having an AKM, then get a legal one. When breaking the law, the odds are against you. It's ~300million law abiding citizens and only one of you. The only winning move is to not be a criminal.

All this makes me wonder if there are any convictions of NFA on the books.

There's probably a way to search it out. I remember see a summary of all the AWB charges in its decade being about 18 arrests, 5 arraignments and 1 plea-bargained conviction. But, I could be remembering it wrong, too.

We who are law-abiding tend to be very much so.

They get in trouble with the law otherwise or run off at the mouth.

All this makes me wonder if there are any convictions of NFA on the books.

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Really? Ruby ridge and Waco are two of the larger cases.

How do they get caught?
... For being stupid and doing something illegal.

Case in point...
A guy, in Henderson NV, was arrested for shooting his AK during New Year's Eve festivities. When Henderson PD showed up, the guy admitted to shooting a 12 round burst from his AK. They confiscated his AK and arrested him for discharging of a firearm in/upon a public street (state misdemeanor) [NRS 202.280]. Upon examination, the local LEOs wanted to confirm that the AK was MG and called in the BATFE for assistance. About 6 months later, BATFE agents arrested the guy for possessing an unregistered MG (Federal felony).

If you won't go into mexico without a gun dont go at all. Just having a bullet can get you thrown in a mexican prison for a looong time. And mexico searches cars and people coming into their country just as we do. I can't even begin to describe how foolish it would be to take a gun into mexico.

1. People who break the law tend to hang around other that do or are shuned for doing so.

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...and as they say, "no honor among thieves." If you're on the hook for a few felonies, wouldn't you try for a deal by narcing out your "buddy" who's got a few pieces of unregistered hardware?

As JustinJ wrote, having to use an illegally modified weapon in a SD scenario is just about the worst possible situation. Not to criticise but, frankly, I don't fully understand the point of this thread. We all know no one here is going to illegally modify any fireams, right?

So a corollary question would be to those of you with properly registered NFA goodies.

Have you ever had anyone in Law Enforcement ask to see your tax stamp?

If so; What were the circumstances?

If you can't brag about what you have...why own it?

if an ar is full auto the reciever will have a sear pin above the fire safety selector.... kinda hard to hide that if the inspector knows anything about the mechanical operation of the firearm... if it doesnt have the sear and appropriate trigger parts then its not full auto...

If you can't brag about what you have...why own it?

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If what you have is illegal, why flaunt it?

"Sear-pin"

Well, mebbe. Among some others, the L.Loader requires no sear-pin. Here is a "suppose this happened to you" scenario: Novice gun-dude during a garage-sale week-end finds an oily but looking mildly complete, SKS original furniture, buys it and takes it home to clean up and shoot with. In the cleaning-kit burrow he finds and extracts a medicine vial with a sort of two-way key-ring-thingie, and Novice finds that it seems to fit into a unique key-hole machined under the action, 1-in ahead of the trigger-guard. He turns key both ways. "Hmmmm, I wonder what it's for." He finds that it turns ON / OFF a function better-known as FULL-AUTO. Delighted but alarmed, Novice brings the tools to his favorite go-to gun-guy who replicates the FULL-AUO function, and is also delighted but even more alarmed, and a bit fearful. I know both of these fellows. I become intimately aware of the situation, by proving it to myself. What do we do, whom do we tell, or just delete this post??? My lips are sealed.