LEO/Military only items

[Bezoar]

IVe always been told that these items could only be bought by actual police/swat/military units, and NOT private citizens NOR individuals of that unit. IE, billy bob in unit A of SWAT team wants that LEO only AR clone, he has to get the boss man to buy it,

However from looking around tonight, any police or military person with the proper ID can call up a FFL dealer who deals in that particular makers offering, and hand cash over and GET the item. When did that come about?

 

[Frog48]

Depends... if you're talking about items that were restricted by the '94 Assault Weapons Ban, those "LEO/Military Only" markings no longer have any legal significance, due to the expiration of the ban as of 2004. So yes, any LEO (or regular folks, for that matter) can buy them nowadays.

In regard to items restricted by the National Firearms Act of 1934, thats another story. In the eyes of the law, an individual LEO has no special standing or status. They must jump through the same hoops as anybody else. Law enforcement agencies can buy items for official use, but an LEO, as a private individual, cannot buy for their personal use by just flashing their badge/ID.

 

[Steve in PA]

If Billy Bob wants an NFA weapon, he has to go through the same hoops that non-Billy Bob does in order to get the weapon. Bill Bob can get the NFA weapon through the dept and do away with the hoops, however he still needs a letter from the dept and the NFA weapon "belongs" to the dept, although Billy Bob has it in his possession.

 

[OEF_VET]

There are also some companies who, for various reasons, restrict sales of their products to LEA's, LEO's, and .gov agencies.

Some of the types of products are breaching ammo and barrels, less lethal munitions, state-of-the-art night vision gear, and IR lights.

 

[wideym]

For the right price anything can be bought-breaching ammo and barrels, less than lethal ammo, state of the art night vision, politicicans, etc.

Seriously though, some vendors won't sell to non-LEOs, but distributors and vendors usually sell non-NFA stuff to whoever has the cash. I bought a pair of PVS-14s last month from a nightvison vendor for $3000. I've had a couple of people say that its illegal for citizens to own the latest military nightvison, but the law only covers export of night vision to foriegn countries.

 

[Zak Smith]

Special cases:

An FFL can transfer a firearm to a a LEO of any state, provided it is for official use only and department authorization is provided "on letterhead."

An SOT can transfer an NFA item to a department or gov't agency on a Form 5. (Normal individual and corporate transfers are on a Form 4.)

-z

 

[everallm]

Looks like this is possibly in relation to the fun 'n games with the Hoboken SWAT team......

Just so my poor tired brain has this in place.

I have looked at the ATF site and as far as I can see a LEO is an individual and as an individual has no more rights to own a pre '86 fully automatic weapon than Joe Public. Additionally he no rights to personally aquire a POST '86 FA (such as an M4) weapon.

EXCEPT, the LEO can, if provided with the relevant letter headed request, signed by an appropriate individual purchase said weapon that is the police departments weapon, even if on permanent "loan" to the LEO as part of his duties.

Now the question is...

If the LEO is no longer in that department, even if he has paid for the weapon I assume he has no rights to that weapon.
After all it's post '86, not on the closed register and can't be added to the register and is not "his", its the departments.

Or is this one of those "nudge-nudge, wink-wink, your one of us" occassions?

Also in NJ there is a little clause in the state law that says the right sort of people can, if approved by a superior court judge, be issued an annual licence to posses a "machine gun" if an required part of their duties.

I'm assuming this state law doesn't trump the Federal law so it would have to be a pre '86 weapon only?