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Sorry for what may be a dumb question: can a finished 100 % complete lower be engraved to show COLT AR-15
Property of US Governemt etc. as we see on the 80% lowers as long as the serial number and name of original manufacturer remain in tact?
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Please, anyone who knows otherwise correct me on this. I know this is one of those areas that can change wildly as the ATF changes interpretations and as case law arises.
As I understand it, It's kind of a funny grey area because a homemade firearm for personal use doesn't actually need to be engraved at all. It is encouraged to uniquely identify it so that if it is ever stolen it can be returned, as well as any other instances were documenting it individually would be relevant such as an insurance claim in the case of property damage like fire or flood. The ATF also has guidelines as to engraving requirements, but some pieces of information (such as logos and selector markings) are done voluntarily and the location is relatively broad as to where it can be - the magwell side and above the fire control group pins is done by most companies in the industry to keep things simple. I assume that a good majority of people who get these types of engravings also get their own maker engravings somewhere else on the gun, such as the front of the magwell, the magwell bevel, the trigger guard, etc. This may seem misleading, but when a firearm is NFAed into an SBR and it is engraved with the form 1 info, it is technically re-manufactured and has two manufacture markings but only the newest is the correct information. This is a similar type of thing where you have two sets of markings, where one is essentially cosmetic and the other is real. Obviously your maker information needs to be unique (you don't want to make a dozen "Bob-15s" all with serial "#001") and it's a good idea to also make sure the cosmetic information is unique as well - the last thing you want is real government property or a registered MG to go missing, and you have in your hands the rifle with that info on it. Most people I've heard mention this either buy a demilled receiver and use that serial so it's known to be a destroyed gun or they pick a number outside the range of manufacture - such as serial number 160,XXX when production stopped at 120,000.
Again, that's as I understand it. I'm not a lawyer, nor part of the ATF, and obviously your local laws apply in regards to all of the above and may not apply to your locale.