Elkins45
Member
I’m partially throwing this out for discussion but I’m also somewhat legitimately interested because there’s a seller nearby that has some Polymer80 Glock lower 80% kits at a good price. I suspect the reason the price is so good is because the only ones he has left in stock are the serialized ones such as are required in California.
Here’s the question: since an unfinished Polymer80 lower is not legally a firearm, would it be legal to remove the serial number before performing the operations needed to complete it? My thought is that it would be, since it isn’t a gun at that point. I would think timing is important because once it’s a gun a you can’t deface the serial number. Even though there is no legal requirement federally or in my state for a homemade gun to have a serial number, there’s also a law that says you can’t remove the serial number from a firearm. But if you remove the SN from what is legally just a hunk of plastic then it would never have been serialized at the time it became a firearm, so you legally haven’t removed the SN from a gun.
I realize this is the same sort of hair-splitting that requires you to assemble an AR lower as a pistol first or it will always be a rifle, but I’m sure there are people rotting in jail somewhere (or at least are much poorer) for not splitting that hair. I would think it would be wise to document the sequence of steps through photos or video. And before anyone says it, yes I realize just leaving the serial number in place really doesn’t have much of a downside. It just seems like that having a SN on an 80% build partially defeats the purpose.
Here’s the question: since an unfinished Polymer80 lower is not legally a firearm, would it be legal to remove the serial number before performing the operations needed to complete it? My thought is that it would be, since it isn’t a gun at that point. I would think timing is important because once it’s a gun a you can’t deface the serial number. Even though there is no legal requirement federally or in my state for a homemade gun to have a serial number, there’s also a law that says you can’t remove the serial number from a firearm. But if you remove the SN from what is legally just a hunk of plastic then it would never have been serialized at the time it became a firearm, so you legally haven’t removed the SN from a gun.
I realize this is the same sort of hair-splitting that requires you to assemble an AR lower as a pistol first or it will always be a rifle, but I’m sure there are people rotting in jail somewhere (or at least are much poorer) for not splitting that hair. I would think it would be wise to document the sequence of steps through photos or video. And before anyone says it, yes I realize just leaving the serial number in place really doesn’t have much of a downside. It just seems like that having a SN on an 80% build partially defeats the purpose.