Academic question of the SPAS-12

[PaladinVC]

I and my fellow "legal experts" here in our armchairs can't figure this one out without doing actual research, so I'm bringing it to you guys. Here it is:

With the AWB gone, is the French SPAS-12 available to civilians, or does other legislation forbid them? It's in a lot of movies and such, but I've never seen one for sale anywhere. It seems to be a semi-auto 12-gauge shotgun with a folding stock. The AWB would include it on account of the stock and maybe its capacity, but is it "bad" for any other reason?

 

[BigG]

Furrin built, mebbe?

 

[cslinger]

922R importation laws as far as I know. Non-sporting shotgun.

Other than they look very cool they are generally heavy and very uncomfortable to shoot. If you look for them you will come across one every once in a while for sale in a 1200 range or so.

Chris

 

[mattjoe]

yes, the semi auto import ban stopped them sometime ago.
You can easily find them for sale in any of the major gun classifieds like gunbroker, auctionarms, gunsamerica just do a search for Franchi.
They're fun guns, if you want a shooter, get the fixed stock one.
It'll be cheaper also, and wont hurt your face when you shoot it.
Replacement parts are a bit difficult to find, but things dont usually break on them till after 100,000 rounds.

 

[Monkeyleg]

Echoing the above comments, the Spas 12 folder is definitely a pain in the shoulder to shoot. But very cool to look at.

There are plenty of parts available to build up a "neutered" Spas 12 into pre-ban configuration. A friend did this while the AW ban was still in effect.