I saw this argument made on another forum and was curious what the ARFCOM brain trust says about it.

Essentially, it was that 922r regulation only mentions importation and manufacturing - nothing about mere possession of a firearm that isn't 922r compliant.  To that end, if you had come to acquire a firearm that turned out to be non-compliant with 922r, you and the firearm would not be in legal jeopardy as long as you didn't manufacture/assemble or import it.  Someone else prior to you coming into possession of the firearm must have broken the 922r regulation, but mere possession of the firearm is not illegal if the possessor did not manufacture or import it themselves.

Thoughts?

How does a prosecutor prove you did NOT use enough compliant parts

Serious question

I'm more interested in the merits of the argument I posted.  If you can't get past your comment in this, just assume that in this case it's obvious because all pertinent parts are german marked in an HK rifle or have SIG SAN proof marks for a SIG 550 rifle.

Protip. I have never heard of anyone ever being asked about parts count, much less charged. The only way I can see you getting jammed up is by thinking you're gonna troll the atf and talk yourself into a charge.

Technically I think you are correct by the letter of the law. But we all know the government is not bound by/can make up their own laws.

The ATF doesn’t follow laws, they clearly randomly make them up and change them incessantly. For the love of all that is good, please don’t ask them your question…
For what it matters, yes I agree

Reasonable people do not care about 922r. Too many people trying to police gun owners on behalf of the AFT.

I'll repeat what others have said... I have never, ever heard of anyone being prosecuted for violation of 922r.  Most people think if you ever did get prosecuted it'd be a stacking charge for them to pile on you because you were in violation of a bunch of other shit.  To add to that they can't prove parts in a gun are U.S. made or not because not every U.S. made 922r part is stamped with (US) on it.  In terms of the law 922r is just very gray overall and pretty unenforceable.

I choose to follow it and make my guns compliant as I would never want to be the winner of the shit lottery and be the one to be made an example of, but most don't care or follow it.

Not sure this link answers your "possession" question, but it might help you determine whether the rifle or shotgun may actually be 992 compliant, or how it might be made compliant.

https://gununiversity.com/922r-compliance/

Let's apply silencer rules here:

Every part in an assembled silencer is a silencer part - and thus subject to nfa stuff.

So, every part in a US assembled firearm is a US part - and thus compliant with 922r.

If 922R really mattered for guns already imported into the US then you would not see factory LE only configuration Benelli shotguns for sale.

there are many things for gun owners to legit worry about, 922r isn’t one. If it’s something that really bothers you there’s lots of aftermarket fixes.

But that's it they aren't able to be imported in that configuration except to LE/MIL/Gov. I've never seen anything that says they can't turn around and sell those guns to anyone.

A Benelli M4, that I may or may not have, had two labels on the box.  The bottom label was for a model 11707, a civilian model with fixed pistol grip stock and the ribbed mag extension that doesn’t increase the mag capacity beyond the 5.  That Benelli factory label had another Benelli label on top of it that said Model 11721 M4 18.5 3pos tele 7+1 LE.  This suggests that it was imported in the civilian configuration, but was converted to the LE configuration at Benelli USA.  In other words, Benelli USA was the one who made it into a non-922r configuration, not anyone who later buys it.  As noted, there is nothing that says it can’t be sold to anyone.  Benelli may have an issue with that in regards to dealers who selling, but that’s between them.

(r) It shall be unlawful for any person to assemble from imported parts any semiautomatic rifle or any shotgun which is identical to any rifle or shotgun prohibited from importation under section 925(d)(3) of this chapter as not being particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes except that this subsection shall not apply to—
(1) the assembly of any such rifle or shotgun for sale or distribution by a licensed manufacturer to the United States or any department or agency thereof or to any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision thereof; or
(2) the assembly of any such rifle or shotgun for the purposes of testing or experimentation authorized by the Attorney General.


that is the actual law, then as customary, the ATF published more law without a law passed by congress, made up by the ATF. It's called CFR Cod of Federal regulations:


§178.39   Assembly  of  semiautomatic,  rifles or shotguns.
(a)  No  person  shall  assemble  a  semi-automatic  rifle  or  any  shotgun  using more than 10 of the imported parts listed in paragraph (c) of this section if the assembled  firearm  is  prohibited  from importation  under  section  925(d)(3)  as not  being  particularly  suitable  for  or readily adaptable to sporting purposes.
(b)   The   provisions   of   this   section shall not apply to:
      (1) The assembly of such rifle or shotgun  for  sale  or  distribution  by  a  licensed   manufacturer   to   the   United States  or  any  department  or  agency thereof  or  to  any  State  or  any  department,  agency,  or  political  subdivision thereof; or
      (2) The assembly of such rifle or shot-gun  for  the  purposes  of  testing  or  experimentation authorized by the Director  under  the  provisions  of  §178.151;  or
      (3) The repair of any rifle or shotgun which  had  been  imported  into  or  assembled  in  the  United  States  prior  to November  30,  1990,  or  the  replacement of any part of such firearm.
(c)  For  purposes  of  this  section,  the term imported parts are:
      (1) Frames, receivers, receiver castings,forgings or stampings
      (2) Barrels
      (3) Barrel extensions
      (4) Mounting blocks (trunions)
      (5) Muzzle attachments
      (6) Bolts
      (7) Bolt carriers
      (8) Operating rods
      (9) Gas pistons
     (10) Trigger housings
     (11) Triggers
     (12) Hammers
     (13) Sears
     (14) Disconnectors
     (15) Buttstocks
     (16) Pistol grips
     (17) Forearms, handguards
     (18) Magazine bodies
     (19) Followers
     (20) Floorplates
[T.D. ATF–346, 58 FR 40589, July 29, 1993,


IMO, not a lawyer, the original law specifically says
"assemble from imported parts any semiautomatic rifle or any shotgun which is identical to any rifle or shotgun prohibited from importation"

assemble from imported parts, IMO means all the parts are imported, but I am not a lawyer
also identical means identical, if 1 part is different it is not identical, so 1 US made part and it isn't identical and since the parts listed by the ATF include follower, re[placing one with a mark that says MADE IN THE USA, no longer makes it identical, same with a frame that is US made and has different markings as the original and is therefore not identical. But again, I am not a lawyer.

Words have meanings.

But the bottom line is if you buy  a firearm and somebody else assembled it so that it was illegal and identical to a prohibited imported forearm, you didn't assemble it and using the ATF CFR, and the parts list and count of 10, if you didn't make the changes, even if you could tell, which you probably cant tell, you aren't breaking the law as far as I can tell because you didn't assemble it.

How you would even know if you bought a firearm that was illegally assembled under 922r and the ATF add on laws I have no idea.

The problem is that 922r will mean whatever ATF and their Lawyers, Judge and Jury says it means.

Does 922r apply to MGs?

You've never heard of anyone being charged, because apparently you've never researched it...

8 prosecutions from 2008-2017

4 total if I’m reading that chart correctly. Is there a list of the individual prosecutions anywhere?

You're right - I added the last column instead of using it as the total. I did read elsewhere that there were several confirmed cases of 922r add on charges as well. Those cited in the TRACReport are prosecutions solely for 922r violations.

Four prosecutions out of tens of thousands. I would bet that they were tacked on charges to add a few more years in prison for whatever the major charges were. Keep in mind there is no standard for marking parts as made in the US and I have seen laser etched, stamped, engraved, to just sticker variations from "Made in the US" to simply "US". When in doubt, buy a set of steel stamps.

The 4 prosecutions in that graph are indicated as sole/lead charge, not an add-on.

Is there a way to look up those cases?

Thanks for the clarification. With that, I give up on what they could have done to bring attention to themselves.

I've used a machinist in the past to duplicate parts for me, sadly he recently passed away.

4 prosecutions in 9 years....yeah it's not an issue.

Yeah, but looking at the chart neither is many of the other crimes we associate with draconian Federal gun laws.

If you exclude felon/illegal alien/drug addict in possession, false statements to acquire, and stolen firearms.

Most of the other categories are minuscule in comparison to those listed above.

Total NFA violations are under 200 per year. Possession of a machinegun under 922(o) never broke 90 and was less than 60 all but 1 year.

If you don't have significant assets to seize, I doubt they would care about most things.

That is what it indicates, but I'm not sure I trust that data. I suspect they actually were all add-on charges but I have nothing to prove my hypothesis.

It's also possible all other charges were dropped in a plea deal, and they plead guilty to what was (technically) the sole remaining charge.

(Of course those 2 theories are not mutually exclusive.)

As pointed out above, yes OP's premise/question is correct. It's assembly from imported parts that is forbidden, not possession of improperly assembled firearms.

The government would have no case unless they could prove who did the assembly, even if it could be proven the firearm is non-complaint regarding imported parts count.

Then you have 18 USC 925 which is where all the exceptions come from.

That means you've got 100% non-compliant imports in circulation, and that's fine because they were imported with the intent to be sold to a government (local/state/federal) in the US. Once imported for that purpose, or sold to, shipped to, or owned by said government, there is nothing stopping such firearms from being re-sold to whomever.

That's how Benelli M4 C-stock shotguns get out into the public.

I have a Steyr USR that I bought on GunBroker. I had it shipped to the LE agency where I work. I re-assembled it with imported parts without regard to 922(r) including an imported Austrian AUG A2 barrel with flash suppressor and an A3 stock. Then I used it on duty.

I could sell that again on GunBroker, and whoever buys it would not be violating 922(r) even though the firearm has too many imported parts.

This is because of the USC 925 exceptions outlined above in the quoted CFR.
The US government calls this a "Relief from Disabilities".

ATF cares a lot (maybe the most) about unregistered MG possession, but it's just not something they frequently catch people doing.

If they do catch you, they won't care how few assets you have.

Most people convicted under 922(o) get 2 years probation (assuming a single instance).

No.

It only applies to semi-automatic rifles and all shotguns.

It is for each of that four individuals.  You don't want to be one, even if the odds are low.

No offense OP, but despite the corruption in the DOJ & the bureaucratic bunglers in the ATF, I don't give two shits about 922r. Life is hard enough without worrying about petty infringement.

AFT dont give 2 shits about 922r, unless its the importer that isnt converting hundreds of guns.
Then they will fine or pull their license, no one is going to jail over it.

Speshul agents want BIG & SEXY prosecution, not some joe schmoe with 1 gun that doesnt have a USA made trigger in it.

Thanks for spending the time doing all the work for me

The law, as quoted above, clearly says assembly and importation are illegal while there is no mention of possession.

That’s really the only answer the OP asked for.

Keep in mind, inserting a magazine apparently counts as "assembling"- so if sticking in an imported mag with its 3 parts puts you over the limit of imported parts, it might technically qualify.

Stupid.

What about SBR's?  I know a lot of these foreign made pistols don't even have US made parts available if you go the SBR route.

I'm not sure I know what your question is...

SBR's are beholden to 922r
Pistols are not beholden to 922r

Converting your foreign made pistol to an SBR.  One of the solutions to the new brace point system (if it ever comes out).

SBR's are beholden to 922r

Pistols are not beholden to 922r

Yes, FFS do not ask the ATF that question.  While the intent of the law applied to importation and initial construction of parts kits, and not what happened to them later, they’ll do a very conservative read and  say possession is illegal.  They don’t want to go on record saying it is legal and be held to that precedent.

Alternatively, they will find someone, charge them, and then rely on a sympathetic court convicting the person to set a precedent that possession is illegal.