BATFE Believes M4 Airsoft Guns Can Be Converted To Bullet Firing Full Automatic Rifles

secondamendmentfreedom.blogspot.com ^ | 02/26/10 | Sasparilla

[Smokin' Joe]

My suspicion is his idiot Vice-President was one of the culprits involved in derailing that idea

Probably. After all, you used to need a Law degree to get into the FBI (might still need one), and the DEA didn't need any loose cannons on deck, so where were the kitten-stompers going to go? But then Ruby Ridge happened and Waco started under his watch, too. Grandstand get funding show-op turned sour.

[Smokin' Joe]

Anybody can possess a full auto so called machine gun if they possess the proper TAX STAMP for a paltry $200 from the BATFE.

Only if it was made before 1986 if you are not either a dealer or Law enforcement. When you consider what limiting the number of arms out there has done to the price of transferrable Class III arms, $200.00 does indeed seem a "paltry" fee.

[trapped_in_LA]

I have some experience with AR-15 lowers and I would have to say that if the dimensions are the same as an AR-15 lower then the BATF probably has a pretty good case. It almost looks like you could switch out the airsoft upper for a real upper and have a functioning firearm.

[Still Thinking]

I’ve known guys that even did that with expensive industrial capital equipment. The other advantage/disadvantage is the new item never gets added to the asset list.

[Still Thinking]

That would maybe work if in fact full auto was a banned product but it's not. Anybody can possess a full auto so called machine gun if they possess the proper TAX STAMP for a paltry $200 from the BATFE.

Yes and no. New ones cannot be manufactured nor imported. Even if it were feasible to convert these, the BATFags would still not have a point, as it is physically possible to convert the civilian equivalent of a select fire military weapon to full auto, and even BATFE admits those are still legal (and certainly much more feasible to convert than one of these plastic toys).

[darkwing104]

BATFE

Why am I not surprised...DC's version of the Keystone Cops...

[Still Thinking]

The main problem was that the FBI didn't want them. Nor did any other federal "Law Enforcement" agency.

Oh, yeah, I remember that. The FBI guys said something like "If you mix dirty water and clean water, you get dirty water". Apparently, however, the solution isn't to GET RID of the dirty water, but to concentrate it to greater dirtiness and get some more of it. D'oh!

[Slings and Arrows]

I’ll second that emotion.

[El Gato]

Wasn't that also called McClure-Volkmer?

Yes, FOPA was also known as McClure-Volkmer. The machine gun provision was a last minute amendment, and was so poorly written that if it was not enforced "as intended" rather than as written, it would have no affect at all.

[El Gato]

It almost looks like you could switch out the airsoft upper for a real upper and have a functioning firearm.

Except that there is an electric motor in the lower, to power the pellets, and they have no hammer other mechanism for setting off a live round.

So no, it wouldn't work.

[wysiwyg]

I didn't see any motor in the drawing I posted above and the rifle is CO₂-powered, not electric, so...

[philman_36]

Looking like fools yet again.

[philman_36]

It says, right there in the manual, they cause EXPLOSION
I know yours is an attempt at levity, but it's an "exploded parts diagram" for those that don't grok it.

[green iguana]

It might work, just not quite that way.

Having just built up 3 ARs, I’m guessing BATFE’s concern is someone taking the fire control parts out of the toy and putting them in a real AR.

I’m somewhat familiar with what M-16 internals look like, and the toy’s internals look more like those than they do an AR. Wish I had a Bushmaster catalog with me - I could verify it.

[tacticalogic]

If they say one of these toy guns can be easily converted to a full automatic weapon, then the question should be easily settled.

Make them demonstated doing it in front of the judge.