Is approval needed to construct "suppressors"?

Do I need NFA paperwork just to build a suppressor, or is it not needed until I actually plan on using the thing?

I'm thinking that, technically speaking, if I build the thing myself, it could not be considered a suppressor until I use it as such, or declare it as such. Until then, it is just an amalgamation of hardware store sundries, with no legally defined usage.

 

Yes! You need to send in a Form 1 (and a check for $200) AND get it back with a stamp before you even begin to build the suppressor. You can have an unthreaded tube before getting the F1 back, but any baffles without the registration stamp and you're looking at an illegal NFA weapon.

Realistically, you probably wouldn't get caught if you started a bit early (unless of course you posted your intentions on a public forum... ) but is it really worth risking 10 years of your life so you can have a suppressor locked up in your gun safe a couple of months sooner?

By using your "technical" definition, a weapon wouldn't be a machine gun until you moved the selector switch to that last position...

 

Why do you keep starting threads about making NFA weapons when you don't seem to know anything about making NFA weapons? You keep asking, but you don't seem to learn. Building NFA's is legally complicated. If you're not good at following written rules don't mess with building NFA's. Ask a firearms lawyer to help you if needed. Little mistakes will be treated as if you murdered someone. Not kidding. Just having some parts around has sent people to federal prison for years.

How to legally get/make NFA weapons
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=692622

Pistol-gripped rifle?
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=8357852#post8357852

Also the problem with building your own silencers is that they don't last more than a few rounds, and once ruined, the main body cannot be replaced. You have to go thru the whole permit process again. That is why people pay more for silencers that are tough and/or can be repaired without a new stamp. So although we can make silencers pretty easy, making a good one that lasts, or can be repaired, is not easy. It's worth the few hundred extra dollars for a commercially built one. Otherwise you're paying a $200 stamp, a stack of paperwork and months of waiting just for a disposable silencer.

 

Can you cite some examples of individuals who made little mistakes/just had parts around and went to federal prison for years?

This is not at all true. If you've never built one, it's not right to comment as though you have. Just because a person makes their own suppressor doesn't mean it has a short lifespan. There are a good many of us here who've made suppressors and they last just as long as a commercial made can. Sometimes they are substantially over-built and will outlast the commercial counterparts.

There is no 'permit' or 'permit process' involved in suppressor ownership. There is no license and you don't 'have to have a class III' to own one: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=507319

I guess I don't see the virtue in talking down to someone for their attempts to learn, by someone who does not come across as entirely informed by any stretch, but I do want to read the accounts of the little mistakes/years in prison indeed.

 

joeschmoe,

Your attitude towards guns on this forum is appalling. It seems as though you have some sort of grudge against those of us who make their own silencers. I make silencers as a hobby; 18 silencers in eleven years so far. None of them are disposable and most of them work well. While I have made a few that did not perform to my expectations, I have no regrets.

All of my silencers so far have more than 1000 rounds through them; my 223 can has nearly 5000 and should last at least 10,000. I can replace any part I want as long as I send it to a FFL/SOT class 2 or pay another $200 tax. It takes a lot to ruin the main tube. I assembled a 308 can with a front end cap weld that did not penetrate enough. The second round sent all of the parts up to 80 yards down range. I found them all and re-welded the can together and it is still working just fine today

Please tell us more about this "permitting process". Is it something new I have yet to hear about? I make silencers and do not obtain a permit or license to do so; I just pay the tax on each one before making parts.

My silencers are tough, maybe tougher than those made by the pros. They are also heavier than some made for the military or civilian market. The real trick is making a durable silencer that is effective and not bulky and heavy.

Actually I have found that making a newly designed part is hard, making it a second time is easy.

A few hundred extra dollars? Silencers cost between $200 and $3500 in the USA. I will make a 50 bmg silencer for $250 plus the ATF's tax. Where are you getting these silencers that cost a few hundred bucks?

Who is making these disposable registered silencers?

What rational reason do you have to believe anything in your post?

Ranb