DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
               BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND FIREARMS
                        WASHINGTON, DC 20226

                             MAR 3 1999

                                                          903050:EMO
                                                          3311


Dear :

This is in reply to your letter dated January 30, 1999, in which
you ask if the frame or receiver for a semiautomatic assault rifle
is a semiautomatic assault rifle.

Title 18 U.S.C., section 921(a)(7) defines the term rifle as a
weapon designed, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the
shoulder and designed or redesigned and made or remade to use the
energy of the explosive in a fixed metallic cartridge to fire only
a single projectile through a rifled bore for each single pull of
the trigger.  Section 921(a)(30)(B) defines the term semiautomatic
assault rifle as a semiautomatic rifle that has the capability to
accept a detachable magazine and that has at least 2 specified
features.

The frame or receiver from a semiautomatic assault rifle does not
meet the definition of a rifle.  Therefore, the frame or receiver
from a semiautomatic assault rifle, in and of itself, is not a
semiautomatic assault rifle.

You also asked about such a receiver marked as being for law
enforcement or government use only.  ATF has previously held that
a dealer obtaining semiautomatic assault weapons by falsely
representing that the weapons are for resale to law enforcement,
but who actually intends to reconfigure the weapons so that they no
longer meet the definition of semiautomatic assault weapon, would
possess the weapons in violation of 18 U.S.C. section 922(v).  A
dealer who made a false statement concerning disposition of the
weapon(s) in a letter or other document may also have violated 18
U.S.C. section 1001, and if the document was sent through the mail
may have violated 18 U.S.C. section 1342.  The Federal firearms
license of such dealers would also be subject to revocations.

We trust that the foregoing has been responsive to your inquiry.
If we may be of any further assistance, please contact us.



                          Sincerely yours,

                              [signed]
                         Edward M. Owen, Jr.
                  Chief, Firearms Technology Branch[/url]