Got a FAL kit? Read this!

[Ian]

In a recent ruling, the ATF has determined that the center section of a chopped FAL receiver is a machinegun. One of the guys at the gun shop I'm working in tried to get a new kit for a customer of ours who wants a FAL built, and discovered that our source for them no longer offers them for sale.

After being notified by the ATF of the rule change, our supplier had started removing the center section of the receiver from each kit, and tossing them into 55 gallon drums (ditching them all was impractical, as he had 28 palettes of kits at the time). The ATF recently inspected/raided his premises and confiscated two such drums full of chopped receivers. They are now in the process of charging him with who-knows-how-many counts of illegal machine gun possession

If you bought a FAL kit in the past and got the center section of the chopped receiver (they were perfectly legal until a month or two ago), I strongly suggest that you get rid of it posthaste. I don't have any links to sources for this, as everything I've heard has been firsthand word of mouth. I don't know if I should say who our kit supplier is/was, because I don't know if publicity would hurt his efforts to survive these charges. Suffice to say, he's an upstanding and legitimate guy who had sold a great many such kits until now.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Thank you for your public service message. Instead of hanging around the 'hood they go after easy targets. Nothing changed.

 

[gun-fucious]

http://www.falfiles.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=79966
http://www.falfiles.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?daysprune=365&forumid=52

 

[Ian]

Yup - that's the stuff, gun-fucious. Very informative links there! I didn't know this had gotten so much attention over at the FAL Files.

 

[Correia]

Unfreaking believable. They are pieces of metal that have been chopped in half with a cutting torch. The best smiths in the world would be hard pressed to make those into anything other than a paperweight.

 

[Keith]

Actually, they hadn't been chopped with a cutting torch, and that's the issue.

Some jerk at ATF noticed that some importers were band-sawing the recievers into pieces instead of cutting them with a torch (as specified in some fine print somewhere...).
Now they are hassling a couple of importers and their customers about the issue. As far as I know, nobody has been arrested. They are just seizing these chunks of metal, presumably so they can go to congress next year when the budgets come up and say that they took 10,000 "machine guns" off the streets...

Keith

 

[HBK]

Ridiculous. ATF is a rogue organization and should be disbanded.

 

[gun-fucious]

i believe this came to a head because some bright in-duh-vidual was showing off a JB weld and pipe strap reconstruction of a bandsawn reciever

 

[Keith]

i believe this came to a head because some bright in-duh-vidual was showing off a JB weld and pipe strap reconstruction of a bandsawn reciever

The story on Falfiles is that the in-duh-vidual was an ATF agent. And this guy was, presumably, showered with attaboys and promotions for finding a new way to seize "machine guns" - and gouge more budget money out of congress.

Anyone stupid enough to wire a sawn receiver together deserves having it blow up in their face. It would be much simpler (and far safer) to simply dremel out the offending metal on a semi-auto receiver.
Of course, this logic escapes the ATF.. or actually, I'm sure they realize that but since their whole mission revolves around finding ways to gouge the taxpayers and keep their phoney-baloney jobs, they're willing to overlook logic.

Keith