May have to give the NFA branch a call.

[jmorris]

I have some strange dreams sometimes but this one made me wonder if it would actually work.

We all know that Gatling guns are legal as long as they are operated by a crank. Power it with something and it becomes a machine gun.

The last transferable mini gun that I noticed in Small Arms Review went for $120,000.

What if you made something cheap like a $3k Mac receiver an integral part of the drive for a Gatling gun? The part that makes it a machinegun is a registered machinegun.


Along the lines of something like this but swap the upper with an electric motor. Pull the trigger and the drive operates. Remove the "receiver" from the unit and it's just a Gatling gun without a crank.




Anyone tried this approach yet?

 

[AlexanderA]

I doubt it would fly. What you're suggesting is that the registered lower would merely have the function of an electric switch. If you could substitute a regular electric switch for the lower, the rest of the gun (Gatling gun with an electric motor) would be an unregistered machine gun. It would just be missing the activating switch, something that could be easily supplied.

 

[Neo-Luddite]

This has been tried along similar lines ~ they aren't buying at ATF. In fairness, they basically were trying to bolt a mac receiver onto something and claiming it now 'was' the thing. What you are suggesting is something exotic. I don't know....a lightening link (registered pre-86) that made a newly made weapon full auto might fly, right? Even if the new weapon was nothing like an AR. So maybe you are not dreaming the impossible, only the improbable, dream. What if you just made said weapon and integrated a lightening link in the otherwsie semi-action? Hmmm.....

 

[jmorris]

. What you're suggesting is that the registered lower would merely have the function of an electric switch. If you could substitute a regular electric switch for the lower

No, the lower would be part of the chassis for the drive. Without that hunk of bent and welded sheet steel you just have a gear motor and no way to adapt it to the "upper".

Sort of like you can have a closes dryer and a Gatling gun but if you make an adaptor that allows you to run the dryer belt around the barrel group to spin them, that hunk of metal just made the two otherwise legal things a machine gun. What if that hunk of metal was already a machine gun legally?

 

[jmorris]

The specialist at the NFA branch said that I needed to mail in to the firearms tech branch to get approval of conversion kits. I'll post back when I learn something new.

 

[Bubbles]

The specialist at the NFA branch said that I needed to mail in to the firearms tech branch to get approval of conversion kits.

Correct, ATF Tech Branch would handle this, not NFA. NFA just pushes paperwork.

Tech will want a sample, not just drawings and pictures. If you're not an 07/C2 or 10/C2 don't send them a gun b/c if they determine it's a machine gun and you're not a manufacturer with an SOT, they'll nail you for it.

 

[jmorris]

A sample of the conversion with out the machinegun reciever, so they can see if they can make it function as a machinegun without it?

 

[Flyincedar]

If your conversion works, then its no different than a classified machine gun conversion part. You dont have to have a lightning link in a gun to go down for it.... Same thing with a conversion. If it serves no other purpose than making it FA, you might as well have the whole gun....An 07/02 is cheaper than the fines and jail time

 

[fulltanghalo]

You are probably gonna find out that some modifications to the mac receiver to get it to pass the tech branch.

See: Alliance's SABRE 5.56 mac upper. They had to cut a 1/2" hole in the back of the mac lower to allow for the installation of a ar-15 style buffer tube and buffer. When it was all housed in the upper they were told no by the lawyers.

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2013/01/09/5-56-caliber-mac-10-upper-approved/

 

[jmorris]

See: Alliance's SABRE 5.56 mac upper. They had to cut a 1/2" hole in the back of the mac lower to allow for the installation of a ar-15 style buffer tube and buffer. When

interesting , thanks.

You dont have to have a lightning link in a gun to go down for it.... Same thing with a conversion.

I guess I failed to explaine the concept well enough. The conversion, in and of itself would be like owning a Gatling gun without a crank.