Armory Sponsor
Posted: 5/5/2007 5:44:23 AM EDT
| How does the BATF measure overall length? I've heard with the stock fully extended and with it collapsed. I always thought it was collapsed but I'm not sure. Does anyone have the ruling on this? |
Thats what I believe also. I have a guy on another forum arguing with me about it and I can't find the ruling on it. |
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The OAL is measured with stock stock EXTENDED unless it is quick detachable (ie with the push of a button etc)... this is why an UZI Carbine with a 16" barrel is NOT an NFA weapon... although the OAL is 25.5" with the stock FOLDED... see the NFA FAQ... http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/wbardwel/public/nfalist/nfa_faq.txt snip... A short barreled rifle is a rifle (which is defined as a shoulder fired, rifled bore firearm) with a barrel length of less than 16", or an overall length of less than 26", or any weapon made from a rifle falling into the same length parameters (like a pistol made from a rifle). In measuring barrel length you do it from the closed breech to the muzzle, see 27 CFR sec. 179.11. To measure overall length do so along, "the distance between the extreme ends of the weapon measured along a line parallel to the center line of the bore." 27 CFR sec. 179.11. On a folding stock weapon you measure with the stock extended, provided the stock is not readily detachable, and the weapon is meant to be fired from the shoulder. |
re: the logic, go back to the definition -- a rifle is a shoulder-fired firearm, and the measurement should be taken in the configuration used to fire the gun as designed. Remember that most of the NFA firearms definitions were written in the 1930s when the law was first passed. Firearms design at that time included very few guns with folding stocks -- instead, the entire rifle folded at the action, and could not be fired in folded position. In effect, it was as if the gun was disassembled when carried. When new firearms designs that could be fired in the folding position arrived decades later, BATFE had a choice of three ways to accommodate the new designs: 1.) Set up two different measurement criteria, depending on whether or not it could be fired when folded; 2.) Change the legal definitions of an SBR/SBS; or 3.) Continue to use the original definition and measurement criteria regardless of the firearm's functional status. Personally, I am happy they chose 3. 
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