Shotgun Law
A post at ar15.com on 14.5 inch barreled shotguns:
I will post proof in a couple of days.
Basically if a shotgun comes from the factory with a pistol grip or it’s a virgin receiver never having had any stock other than a pistol grip it can have any barrel length and not be an AOW requiring form 1 or form 4.
There is a a requirement that is must still have an overall length from the furthest point of the pistol grip to the end of the barrel of 26 inches. (26 1/4 to be safe)
It must be smooth bore too.
This is not my opinion, this is fact and I will prove this in a couple of days , give or take a week or two.
Now if you have a 14 1/2 inch barrel and a standard pistol grip you will be under the mandated 26 inch rule.
I also have the answer for this.
If proof is an ATF letter, I wouldn’t rely on it.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:25 am
Considering the way ATF operates, I wouldn’t rely on it if it were in the USC and CFR, backed by a Presidential directive, engraved in stone tablets handed down from the mountain by the almighty himself, and written in fire in letters thirty feet high on the far side of the Quentulus Quazgar Mountains in the land of Sevorbeupstry on the planet of Preliumtarn, which orbits the star Zarss, which is located in the Grey Binding Fiefdoms of Saxaquine.
ATF would still say it doesn’t mean what it says and screw somebody over with it.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:25 am
In Illinois, barrel length is measured from the front of the cartridge case and not from the headspace (rim). I.e. the chamber does not count. Just a caveat, FWIW. May be the rule in other states, as well.
(I dealt with this a while back. A client sawed off his shotgun without knowing what he was doing and then had to surrender it to a gunsmith for rebarreling.)
August 20th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
Front of the case would be unusual, most of the time it is measured from the bolt face when closed on an empty chamber.
August 20th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
Could be that I sissied out, but rebarreling is a lot cheaper than a trial.
August 20th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Three inches are not worth rolling the dice when the stakes are three to five.
August 20th, 2010 at 6:06 pm
The ATF has no constitutional authority, as their authority is derived from the ability to tax firearms, which is not a power granted to the executive or any other branch of government by the constitution or any legislation lawfully enacted by Congress.
Ergo, the ATF’s very existence is ILLEGAL.
This isn’t theory, this is a fact which dictates the methods they use to enforce their will. The ATF rules by fiat, which means if they think it should be illegal, they will arrest you under color of law and essentially sue you until you truckle to their will. Since they do have the vast resources of misbegotten tax revenue to expend,unless you can outspend them in court, they will simply keep you tied up until you surrender, or utterly decimate their case, which is usually less difficult to do than it sounds.
People pay taxes because they think they should, and they obey the ATF because they don’t want to get sued. These are the same tactics that slip and fall ambulance chasers use and it modifies behavior without law. That’s why every coffee cup you pick up now says “Caution: Hot” and every hair dryer says “Do not use in Bathtub”. Not because it’s required by law, but because it’s prudent to avoid judicial violence.
So, in summary, even if it’s legal, DON’T DO IT.
August 20th, 2010 at 6:41 pm
I only know one way to shoot a shotgun — with a cheek weld from a stock I’ve adjusted to my length. I can bring it up from carry and shoot a dove seventy feet up same as it would take me to scratch my nose.
With a stockless shotgun, I doubt I would do better than with a derringer.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
But a stockless shotgun w/ a light and green laser mounted on it works perfectly fine for goblins at close to medium range.
August 25th, 2010 at 10:44 am
I believe that would be a AOW: a smooth-bore handgun with a barrel length less than 18″.
Although… I suppose that if it has a rifled barrel, it would be considered a normal handgun, like the Judge.
Hm.