Posted: 10/4/2009 11:32:37 AM EDT
| Is it legal to have a full auto/M16 bolt carrier installed in your AR-15 in NY? I've been doing some reading, and there seems to be some debate about this generally (not just in NY). From what I've read, a full auto carrier will not make your AR-15 full auto. Thanks. |
| Not saying any of the above is wrong, just inconsequential. The BATFE has ZERO to do with the New York State AWB other than the expired legislation to which it refers. The real question is does NYS law have any specific/ambivalent verbiage that expressly forbids the installation of an M16 BCA? This the answer that I'm anxious to know. |
NYS wouldn't know what a FA bolt carrier was if it tripped over it. 
A full auto bolt carrier doesn't give you full auto. And you don't necessarily need a FA bolt carrier for full auto. All it does in a semi auto gun is, in theory, make it more reliable due to more mass to the bolt. In the same regard it gives more recoil impulse. Some people want heavy bolts, some people want light bolts. |
| The big difference between the Feds and NY is this. On the Federal level if you have a weapon which has been specifically modified (drilling the FA sear pin hole) even if you don't have the necessary FA fire control parts, you definitely can be charged w/ having a FA weapon. In NY before you can get convicted of possessing a FA, the local prosecutor will need an "operability report" completed by a cop or forensic scientist. The operability report would detail how the Firearm examiner loaded, charged and fired the weapon and describe the resulting continuous firing with one single pull of the trigger. Don't for a second think you wouldn't be charged w/ and possibly convicted of attempted CPW of a FA if you came dangerously close to having a fully functional FA weapon in NY. If you have all the FA parts in a weapon and but for your poor gunsmithing skills or missing one critical part, it wont be too difficult to sway a jury that you were attempting to build a machine gun. After the DA shows the jury pictures of your guide on how to build an M-16, dremel tool sitting on your work bench and has the forensic firearm examiner explain what all of these evil things COULD add up to, you are toast. One BCG isn't gonna do it, but a BCG in conjunction w/ other installed FA only parts could. |