I KNOW THIS QUESTION COMES UP TIME AND TIME AGIAN!

BUT, I HAVE MANY PEOPLE THAT I WANT TO DIRECT TO A LINK (OR LINK THIS TO MY WEB PAGE ) PLEASE POST LINKS BELOW OR ANY INFO ON THIS MATTER.

THANK YOU

WILLIAM

California Penal Code:
12020.  (a) Any person in this state who does any of the following is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year or in the state prison:
  (1) Manufactures or causes to be manufactured, imports into the state, keeps for sale, or offers or exposes for sale, or who gives, lends, or possesses any cane gun or wallet gun, any undetectable firearm, any firearm which is not immediately recognizable as a firearm, any camouflaging firearm container, any ammunition which contains or consists of any flechette dart, any bullet containing or carrying an explosive agent, any ballistic knife, any multiburst trigger activator, any nunchaku, any short-barreled shotgun, any short-barreled rifle, any metal knuckles, any belt buckle knife, any leaded cane,[b][blue] any zip gun[/b][/blue], any shuriken, any unconventional pistol, any lipstick case knife, any cane sword, any shobi-zue, any air gauge knife, any writing pen knife, any metal military practice handgrenade or metal replica handgrenade, or any instrument or weapon of the kind commonly known as a blackjack, slungshot, billy, sandclub, sap, or sandbag...

...(10) As used in this section, a "zip gun" means any weapon or device which meets all of the following criteria:
  (A) It was not imported as a firearm by an importer licensed pursuant to Chapter 44 (commencing with Section 921) of Title 18 of the United States Code and the regulations issued pursuant thereto.
  (B) It was not originally designed to be a firearm by a manufacturer licensed pursuant to Chapter 44 (commencing with Section 921) of Title 18 of the United States Code and the regulations issued pursuant thereto.
  (C) No tax was paid on the weapon or device nor was an exemption from paying tax on that weapon or device granted under Section 4181 and subchapters F (commencing with Section 4216) and G (commencing with Section 4221) of Chapter 32 of Title 26 of the United States Code, as amended, and the regulations issued pursuant thereto.
  (D) It is made or altered to expel a projectile by the force of an explosion or other form of combustion.

William,

Would your lowers meet all four criteria to qualify as a zip gun?

William:  Dave_G was quoting the California state law regarding building of firearms by non-licensees.  Federal law, as the quote/citations I provided show, does not prohibit building an 80% into a gun by a non-licensee.

You should be fine selling unfinished lowers into Cali, but it may not be legal for a Cali resident to finish one into a firearm.  Other states should be fine, unless they have similar legislation, but no others states I'm aware of have a similar 'zip gun' statute.

A note on the previous post...Definition of a Tannery lower as a "zip gun" would hinge on the interpretation of the four criteria in Section 12020(c)(10) CPC.  They unquestionably meet three of the four.  Interpretation of the tax issue would be the key.  Rest assured that if the powers that be in Sacramento get wind of it, they will close the sub-paragraph (C) "loophole" or urge the Treasury Department to amend 27 CFR 53.112 to make the completion of one or more 80% lowers strictly for personal use and not incidental to any other manufacturing activity taxable.  A relative "explosion" of 80% receiver manufacture brought to their attention could also do it.

[b]A question for William:[/b]  Do you purchase raw forgings or castings from another source as one of their stock items, or do you have them forged/cast specifically for you from your dies/molds?

William:
I wrote a letter to the ATF about building 80% AR15s a while back, and I received this letter in response.  You can print it out and do whatever you want with it (for example, including a copy of the letter with every casting you sell).
Sorry about the quality of the 3rd picture, I'll try to get around to fixing it in the near future.

[url]http://www.chesapeake.net/~mcfadden/bigtoys/law/1.jpg[/url]

[url]http://www.chesapeake.net/~mcfadden/bigtoys/law/2.jpg[/url]

[url]http://www.chesapeake.net/~mcfadden/bigtoys/law/3.jpg[/url]

Kharn

***I've rescanned the 3rd page, its much higher quality now***

Does anyone have a letter from the BATF on the excise tax issue for non-licensed manufacturers manufacturing one or more firearms for their personal use, not incidental to other firearms manufacturing activity?