Let me tell you a story I'm writing. Once upon a time, a company, prior to 1984, made some M14 clones. They made their own receivers, then used 100% USGI parts, purchased from both the military and the original M14 makers, to build rifles. At some point after about SN 9000 or so, they started using a slightly different receiver, and parts bought from China. Many years later, in 2008, someone saw one of these M14 clones, SN way below 9000, for sale, advertised as a semi auto M14 clone. This person knew a little about this company, and thought it was a great deal for what was probably the closest you could get on the civilian market to a real USGI M14, and he bought it.
Months later, he was reading some technical info on the difference between USGI M14 receivers, the select fire receivers built before 1984 by Springfield Armory and Smith Enterprises, and all the other M14 receivers which, including the rest of the Smiths and Springfields, were semi auto only. He looked at his semi auto receiver, and saw that it looked a lot more like the description he was reading for select fires than the description for semi autos. But he just wasn't sure. What did "at the center of the rail" mean, as opposed to "at the rear of the rail"? What did a "groove on the underside of the front of the rail" actually look like? And there was no selector lug at the right rear of his receiver. But there was an area of "raw" metal where he figured it would have been. Maybe from someone cutting something off? And why the heck would anyone cut the selector lug off of a valuable select fire M14 and pass it on as a semi auto? Plus, as far as he had ever heard, this company only ever made semi auto receivers.
But he also knew that chopping the selector lug off of an M14 receiver does not change its legal status as a Class 3 firearm. If it did, there'd be thousands of them on the market, sold in the 1970s as military surplus. And he's a retired disabled soldier, who also used to be a cop, and he wasn't going to intentionally break any law.
So he kept digging. And eventually found a gun forum entry, from 2003, where someone was asking for info on just exactly what kind of a .308 it was that he had purchased at a gun show. The writer described it as having "US RIFLE 7.62MM M14SA XYZ CORP" on the receiver, and a SN of Cxxxx. A person who was an M14 expert had written back that the fellow had bought an XYZ Corp semi auto M14 clone, built from an XYZ Corp semi auto receiver and USGI parts and components. Our hero grabbed his own M14 and checked the receiver. It was inscribed just like the one mentioned in the forum except for a slight difference. Where the rifle in the forum had "M14SA", which supposedly meant Semi Automatic M14, his rifle only had "M14A", And his SN didn't have a letter C or, for that matter, any letter, just 4 numbers. At that point he really started getting worried.
A few days later, he located a gun shop that had a select fire M14, a dealer's sample from before 1984, on hand. He went to the gun shop, where they let him field strip the select fire M14, and he started measuring things on the receiver. The exact location of the operating rod dismount notch. The exact location and size of the groove on the underside at the front of the receiver rail. And the location of the selector lug. Later, he compared everything to the receiver on his, supposedly semi auto, M14. The only thing that wasn't an exact match was the fact that his receiver had no selector lug. But that area of "raw" metal on his receiver was exactly where the selector lug was on the select fire M14. At that point he became 98% convinced (after all, there might be some other explanation) that the XYZ Corp had made some select fire M14s, just like Smith and Springfield had, that some idiot had in the past chopped the selector lug off one of them and sold the rifle as a normal semi auto M14 clone, and that he now owned that rifle. He also, unfortunately, knew that, legally, it was still a Class 3 machinegun as far as the BATF was concerned.
Now, our hero does not want to break the law. He also does not want to just lose all the money he put into his newly bought, and what he thought was strictly semi auto, Elk hunting rifle. Even as a semi auto clone, an M14, especially one that is 100% military except for the receiver itself, is not cheap. Not to mention the money he put into things like a $600 scope, an original military leather M14 sling, an original USGI M14 butt stored cleaning kit, and several magazines, all of which will be useless to him without the rifle. We leave our hero at this point, as he wonders what to do and searches for a lawyer, which he is having a very hard time finding.
In order to finish this story in a realistic sounding manner, I need information. What can our hero do? Assuming that this rifle was at one point a legally registered Class 3 firearm, and that it was never reported demilitarized or destroyed, but somehow got separated from its paperwork, and also that he can prove that he bought it in all innocence, with no reason to even suspect that it might be a machinegun, is there any way at all that he can possibly get it re-registered? (After paying a big fee, no doubt.)
Is there perhaps some individual part, besides the whole receiver, which is, in and of itself, registered as a machine gun, like the automatic sear for an M16, which he could buy on a Form 4, and then use that as the registration for his M14?
If he's just screwed, can he get away with having a gunsmith strip everything off of the receiver, surrender only the receiver, then buy a semi auto, but compatible with USGI components, receiver so he'd at least still have a rifle?
If he has to surrender the rifle, or even just the receiver, will he have any recourse against the guy who sold it to him as a legal semi auto rifle?
Of course, the worst possible ending for this story would be for the rifle to turn out to have been stolen, which would explain why someone might have wanted to disguise it as a semi auto. If I end it that way, our hero loses the whole darned thing, so I'd rather not. I prefer happy endings. However, he is at least as worried that someone may have had his select fire M14 stolen years ago as he is about breaking any Class 3 possession laws himself, so it has to be considered as a possibility. I just do not have the level of expertise needed to finish writing this story in a realistic manner. Help, someone.
Months later, he was reading some technical info on the difference between USGI M14 receivers, the select fire receivers built before 1984 by Springfield Armory and Smith Enterprises, and all the other M14 receivers which, including the rest of the Smiths and Springfields, were semi auto only. He looked at his semi auto receiver, and saw that it looked a lot more like the description he was reading for select fires than the description for semi autos. But he just wasn't sure. What did "at the center of the rail" mean, as opposed to "at the rear of the rail"? What did a "groove on the underside of the front of the rail" actually look like? And there was no selector lug at the right rear of his receiver. But there was an area of "raw" metal where he figured it would have been. Maybe from someone cutting something off? And why the heck would anyone cut the selector lug off of a valuable select fire M14 and pass it on as a semi auto? Plus, as far as he had ever heard, this company only ever made semi auto receivers.
But he also knew that chopping the selector lug off of an M14 receiver does not change its legal status as a Class 3 firearm. If it did, there'd be thousands of them on the market, sold in the 1970s as military surplus. And he's a retired disabled soldier, who also used to be a cop, and he wasn't going to intentionally break any law.
So he kept digging. And eventually found a gun forum entry, from 2003, where someone was asking for info on just exactly what kind of a .308 it was that he had purchased at a gun show. The writer described it as having "US RIFLE 7.62MM M14SA XYZ CORP" on the receiver, and a SN of Cxxxx. A person who was an M14 expert had written back that the fellow had bought an XYZ Corp semi auto M14 clone, built from an XYZ Corp semi auto receiver and USGI parts and components. Our hero grabbed his own M14 and checked the receiver. It was inscribed just like the one mentioned in the forum except for a slight difference. Where the rifle in the forum had "M14SA", which supposedly meant Semi Automatic M14, his rifle only had "M14A", And his SN didn't have a letter C or, for that matter, any letter, just 4 numbers. At that point he really started getting worried.
A few days later, he located a gun shop that had a select fire M14, a dealer's sample from before 1984, on hand. He went to the gun shop, where they let him field strip the select fire M14, and he started measuring things on the receiver. The exact location of the operating rod dismount notch. The exact location and size of the groove on the underside at the front of the receiver rail. And the location of the selector lug. Later, he compared everything to the receiver on his, supposedly semi auto, M14. The only thing that wasn't an exact match was the fact that his receiver had no selector lug. But that area of "raw" metal on his receiver was exactly where the selector lug was on the select fire M14. At that point he became 98% convinced (after all, there might be some other explanation) that the XYZ Corp had made some select fire M14s, just like Smith and Springfield had, that some idiot had in the past chopped the selector lug off one of them and sold the rifle as a normal semi auto M14 clone, and that he now owned that rifle. He also, unfortunately, knew that, legally, it was still a Class 3 machinegun as far as the BATF was concerned.
Now, our hero does not want to break the law. He also does not want to just lose all the money he put into his newly bought, and what he thought was strictly semi auto, Elk hunting rifle. Even as a semi auto clone, an M14, especially one that is 100% military except for the receiver itself, is not cheap. Not to mention the money he put into things like a $600 scope, an original military leather M14 sling, an original USGI M14 butt stored cleaning kit, and several magazines, all of which will be useless to him without the rifle. We leave our hero at this point, as he wonders what to do and searches for a lawyer, which he is having a very hard time finding.
In order to finish this story in a realistic sounding manner, I need information. What can our hero do? Assuming that this rifle was at one point a legally registered Class 3 firearm, and that it was never reported demilitarized or destroyed, but somehow got separated from its paperwork, and also that he can prove that he bought it in all innocence, with no reason to even suspect that it might be a machinegun, is there any way at all that he can possibly get it re-registered? (After paying a big fee, no doubt.)
Is there perhaps some individual part, besides the whole receiver, which is, in and of itself, registered as a machine gun, like the automatic sear for an M16, which he could buy on a Form 4, and then use that as the registration for his M14?
If he's just screwed, can he get away with having a gunsmith strip everything off of the receiver, surrender only the receiver, then buy a semi auto, but compatible with USGI components, receiver so he'd at least still have a rifle?
If he has to surrender the rifle, or even just the receiver, will he have any recourse against the guy who sold it to him as a legal semi auto rifle?
Of course, the worst possible ending for this story would be for the rifle to turn out to have been stolen, which would explain why someone might have wanted to disguise it as a semi auto. If I end it that way, our hero loses the whole darned thing, so I'd rather not. I prefer happy endings. However, he is at least as worried that someone may have had his select fire M14 stolen years ago as he is about breaking any Class 3 possession laws himself, so it has to be considered as a possibility. I just do not have the level of expertise needed to finish writing this story in a realistic manner. Help, someone.
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