New guy and new gun owner.  I ordered 2 handguns on 18 Apr. The DC FFL had them on the 20th.  The background and fingerprinting on the 21st.  I was "authenticated" on the 25th  and unfortunately work commitments would not allow me to the back to pick them up until the 27th.  I was expecting it to be a horror show but the entire process went without issue.  Small issue not related to gun registration though.  I forgot I had my knife in my backpack and the x-ray machine saw it.  I stashed it in the bushed. Anyways, got the guns, rode the metro home. Was at Maryland Small Arms Range first thing Saturday morning the 29th.  What a great feeling it is to exercising my 2A right.   I next planned purchase the Fightlite SCR but after researching some other rifle compliant alternatives I saw that CA has similar restrictions on rifles as DC.  So I figured I'd query the gun registration office got an over the phone verbal it would be "gtg", but going to do an in person follow up with a visual representation of the AR and get another thumbs up w/ an approver's/supervisor's name before making the purchase.  My plan is to use either the original Thordsen original or the Gen III as the stock to eliminate the pistol grip. Not quite sold on the "fin" add-on.  But wow, the possibility of owning an AR15, although a California compliant one, but an AR15 nevertheless as a resident of DC.  Any experienced Washingtonians in the gun community out there that could shed light on my venture...is this a pie in the idea?

One of my brothers lives in DC but all his guns are stored at our mom's house in Virginia so I don't think he will have any information. I will ask him if he knows anything.

Best advice, read the text of the law and check the approved list if there is one. The word of a government official that something is legal isn't a defense if it turns out not to be and charges are filed.

Well the trip to the DC gun registration office confirmed a few things.  The desk personnel don't know jack about rifles in particular and firearms in general.  I went armed with visual representations to help their understanding, good thing I did because they didn't have a clue about a featureless rifle.

I explained that my understanding was that guidance for semi- auto rifle was "...with a removable magazine...and any one of the following" connected to the list of the other disqualifiers like a pistol grip, and/or a telescoping stock, and the other things then the rifle is prohibited, but if it did not have one of those disqualifiers it's allowed to be lawfully owned and registered. When she realized I wasn't relenting or accepting her "interpretation" of the guidance she took the photos to the section supervisor a MPD officer.  

The Juggernaut Tactical didn't get his approval--"still a functional pistol grip". l may re-engage that a later date, although I'm not really a fan of the fin-type mod.  But the Thordsen Gen I got a thumbs up and I imagine so would the Gen III. So armed with this info, the decision is do I go for a featureless AR or the ARES SCR or ultimately both?

On another note.  DC's "good reason" cc law took a hit yesterday.  http://wtop.com/dc/2017/07/appeals-court-knocks-down-dc-gun-permit-law/.

Here is a part of DC Code 7-2501.01:

IV) A semiautomatic, rifle that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine and any one of the following:

                    (aa) A pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon;

                    (bb) A thumbhole stock;

                    (cc) A folding or telescoping stock;

                    (dd) A grenade launcher or flare launcher;

                    (ee) A flash suppressor; or

                    (ff) A forward pistol grip;


The code is long, poorly written and ridiculous.  They actually name specific brands and models.  I don't want to go on a rant here, but I think this is the part of the code that you are interested in.


ETA: This is under the definitions of an "assault rifle", so any of the above would make it an assault rifle by DC code.

ETA: After reading your post again, you are familiar with the above.  Here is one more part that may be of interest:

          (iii) Any firearm that the Chief may designate as an assault weapon by rule, based on a determination that the firearm would reasonably pose the same or similar danger to the health, safety, and security of the residents of the District as those weapons enumerated in this paragraph.

Good luck with it.

Hello. I am moving to DC soon (from Califonia) and hope to bring my featureless ARs with me. I am curious as to how this worked out for you. Were you able to get your featureless AR registered in DC? Any additional insight you could offer about the process would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

From California?  Has it got a grip beneath the action? If so no. If not probably yes.
DC
1) Mini-14 Ranch: good to go
2) Fightlite SCR: Good to go
3) Thordsen gen 2,3 AR build: Good to go
4) This kind of grip: Good to go

Not good to go: Most finned.

Just for accuracy's sake, nobody has a grip beneath the action approved in DC. The law is a bad law, unconstitutional and even if it were constitutional not going to reduce any shootings,  and I don't support it - but the person you were dealing with was not not confused, and it is clear for the code it is not "any one of the following..." A pistol grip on a detachable mag semi auto rifle is is clearly prohibited per se in the code and in DC MPD web page list of prohibitions.

The two "featureless" grips that I got approved by the Lt. in charge are:

Sparrow Dynamics
and
Resurgent Arms

I was specifically told finned grips are not acceptable.  I can only assume that this is because a finned grip still "protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon."

It took over a year for them to decide that.

You also cannot have a flash hider muzzle device and the stock must be fixed, they are also very generous in what they consider to be a "thumbhole stock."

They are not very good about giving out knowledge of what they've approved before.

I got approved to have the Ace Skeleton Stock,
but I have since learned that other people have gotten M4 stocks approved as long at they were "fixed"/non-adjustable.

This rifle took a year of back and forth discussions to get approved


DC Featureless AR

Edited for image link correction

Not sure if /Ramler ever succeeded in his quest but if he is the one who got DC to accept Thordsen stocks he is a real 2A Hero.

That really had to make them live up to what is and isn't an "assault weapon" and paved the way for "featureless" rifles.

When you registered your build, did it have a fixed magazine? Or was it just featureless?

It is featureless

I will fix the photo link.

I do think that someone else went with a Dark Storm permanent fixed mag AR but I wasn't interested in something like that.

I did have a brief discussion with the previous Lt. in charge about fixed magazines but their understanding of some of this stuff leaves a lot to be desired.

Edit:  Rifle also has a heavy barrel so is GTG in MD too.

There are also different ways to do this depending on whether you are an actual resident or someone moving in.

Ok that’s good to know. I’m a resident and I’m having a hard time trying to determine if it’s gotta be featureless AND have a fixed mag, or does it have to be featureless AND/OR have a fixed mag. Also, did you build it yourself? Still not sure about them allowing just the registration of the lower

They used to just ban anything and everything that looked like an AR but somehow someone got them to accept Thordsen stock.  They don't consider that to be a featureless AR -- just a rifle.

As far as featureless:  they are close to CA and other ban state definitions of what rifle can't have.
Like above:  I got them to go fixed stock/muzzle break/no pistol grip.

Fixed mag:  Like I said I may be wrong but they have accepted DSI rifles (not what I'd prefer.)  As far as something like the CA compliant Juggernaut Hellfighter mod -- that is something that was on my to do list to figure out.  There's a ton of other ways to fix a mag but I haven't gotten around to that discussion with them in any detail.

As it stands now -- it is either featureless or fixed mag.

Had a family member help out on the build out of state.  There are more than a few local places that will help you build something compliant.

Lowers:  at some time in the past years ago it was accepted to just register a lower.  They don't allow that anymore.

There's a lot of good info on the process and what people have gone through over on Reddit at r/DCGuns

The other major new problem with DC now is the Lt. in charge of the whole process got promoted and while he wasn't a gun nut or technical expert he was somewhat fair in his dealings with you.  The new Lt. seems to be more opposed to anything other than Thordsen stocks.

DC code, besides banning things by name and by features also has a clause where it says "and anything else that the chief decides" so they really have the upper hand in this whole ridiculous system.

Ok, thanks a ton for the guidance

Good luck. I don’t miss that bull shit.

Thanks to some help from Juggernaut Tactical and one of the DC FFLs manged to get MPD to approve the Juggernaut featureless grip for DC.

So current acceptable non-pistol grip grips are:

Juggernaut

Sparrow Dynamics

Resurgent Arms