< Back to the Main Site

Author Topic: 80% lower, after you die!  (Read 4815 times)

Offline shooter

  • NFOA Full Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Aug 2013
  • Location: near Yutan
  • Posts: 1630
80% lower, after you die!
« on: October 17, 2014, 09:31:00 PM »
 Ive seen a  lot of talk about people wanting to build a rifle with the 80% lower,

  my question is, what do your kids do with these after you are gone?

   I figure at the worst, they would just transfer to your next of kin, not sure if they can sell them?
Was mich nicht umbringt macht mich stärker
Sic semper evello mortem tyrannis
 NRA Endowment member
  Shoot  them in the crotch.  Clint Smith, thunder ranch.  Oct 14, 2016

Offline newfalguy101

  • Forum Member
  • *
  • Join Date: May 2012
  • Posts: 217
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #1 on: October 17, 2014, 09:49:54 PM »
Why couldn't they be sold??

As long as they are a legal configuration its not an issue.

ATF strongly suggests they be serial numbered, however, it is NOT a requirement.

The only potential issue I see is convincing someone its legal with no serial unless you have some sort of documentation of who built it and that it was never numbered.

Offline shooter

  • NFOA Full Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Aug 2013
  • Location: near Yutan
  • Posts: 1630
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #2 on: October 17, 2014, 09:53:51 PM »
  Im not sure, I remember something about paying a tax if you are building a firearm? maybe im wrong, but wanted to ask before I do anything,
Was mich nicht umbringt macht mich stärker
Sic semper evello mortem tyrannis
 NRA Endowment member
  Shoot  them in the crotch.  Clint Smith, thunder ranch.  Oct 14, 2016

Offline newfalguy101

  • Forum Member
  • *
  • Join Date: May 2012
  • Posts: 217
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2014, 09:59:25 PM »
Manufactures pay a tax on guns ( once they hit 50 guns ).

Individuals do NOT have to pay the tax on guns they build.

Offline bkoenig

  • Gun Show Volunteer
  • Powder Benefactor
  • *
  • Join Date: May 2009
  • Location: Lincoln, NE
  • Posts: 3677
  • Aspiring cranky old gun nut
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2014, 12:50:43 AM »
Nothing to stop you from putting your own serial number on an 80% lower when you build one.  That might make it easier for your survivors to sell, assuming they're still legal at that time.  If they're not, NO serial number might be better.   ;D


Offline tstuart34

  • NFOA Full Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Oct 2013
  • Location: Lincoln
  • Posts: 885
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2014, 04:17:09 PM »
Nothing to stop you from putting your own serial number on an 80% lower when you build one.  That might make it easier for your survivors to sell, assuming they're still legal at that time.  If they're not, NO serial number might be better.   ;D
That's my understanding...they must be marked with SN and manufacture to be sold and your original intent was not to resell. Your serial number could be anything you want. I thought about making lowers for my three kids and make the SN there birthdates. Sticking them in the back of the safe and when they are old enough they cab build there rifle how they please.

Offline newfalguy101

  • Forum Member
  • *
  • Join Date: May 2012
  • Posts: 217
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2014, 04:25:42 PM »
That's my understanding...they must be marked with SN and manufacture to be sold and your original intent was not to resell. Your serial number could be anything you want. I thought about making lowers for my three kids and make the SN there birthdates. Sticking them in the back of the safe and when they are old enough they cab build there rifle how they please.

Please quote your source that "requires" serial numbers on homebuilt guns, under ANY circumstances.

I will save you the trouble, there are NO requirements for HOMEBUILDERS to serialize their guns*

*Note:  By definition a homebuilder is NOT a manufacturer and is not building with the intent of selling.

Offline tstuart34

  • NFOA Full Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Oct 2013
  • Location: Lincoln
  • Posts: 885
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #7 on: October 18, 2014, 04:43:19 PM »
Please quote your source that "requires" serial numbers on homebuilt guns, under ANY circumstances.

I will save you the trouble, there are NO requirements for HOMEBUILDERS to serialize their guns*

*Note:  By definition a homebuilder is NOT a manufacturer and is not building with the intent of selling.
I am speaking on selling or transferring any homebuilder firearm. Inorder transfer any firearm you must comply with the markings required of a manufacturer.  I am on my phone so hard to quote. But here is the ATF

http://www.atf.gov/firearms/faq/firearms-technology.html#commercial-parts-assembly
 Look under engraving

Offline newfalguy101

  • Forum Member
  • *
  • Join Date: May 2012
  • Posts: 217
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #8 on: October 18, 2014, 05:14:23 PM »
From your link:

Individuals manufacturing sporting-type firearms for their own use need not hold Federal Firearms Licenses (FFLs).

 However, we suggest that the manufacturer at least identify the firearm with a serial number as a safeguard in the event that the firearm is lost or stolen.

 Also, the firearm should be identified as required in 27 CFR 478.92 if it is sold or otherwise lawfully transferred in the future.



As I posted earlier, ATF suggest serializing, but does NOT require it.

As for selling or otherwise transferring, 27 CFR 478.92, as a LAW only applies to MANUFACTURERS and once again ATF says "should"  as apposed to  the verbage in the law that says

(a)(1) Firearms. You, as a licensed manufacturer or licensed importer of firearms, must legibly identify each firearm manufactured or imported as follows:


So as stated above, ATF suggest but does NOT require it.

Offline tstuart34

  • NFOA Full Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Oct 2013
  • Location: Lincoln
  • Posts: 885
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #9 on: October 18, 2014, 06:04:39 PM »
From your link:

Individuals manufacturing sporting-type firearms for their own use need not hold Federal Firearms Licenses (FFLs).

 However, we suggest that the manufacturer at least identify the firearm with a serial number as a safeguard in the event that the firearm is lost or stolen.

 Also, the firearm should be identified as required in 27 CFR 478.92 if it is sold or otherwise lawfully transferred in the future.


As I posted earlier, ATF suggest serializing, but does NOT require it.

As for selling or otherwise transferring, 27 CFR 478.92, as a LAW only applies to MANUFACTURERS and once again ATF says "should"  as apposed to  the verbage in the law that says

(a)(1) Firearms. You, as a licensed manufacturer or licensed importer of firearms, must legibly identify each firearm manufactured or imported as follows:


So as stated above, ATF suggest but does NOT require it.


Thank you for quoting it for me....

I take Should be as you Shall be. I understand how you are reading the ATF statement.

I am basing  my statements on every thread that i have read on the subject has someone state that you must comply with standard serializing methods of you want to sell a home built weapon.

Here is a thread from a forum that is specific to homegun smiths...

http://www.homegunsmith.com/archive/T17698.html

I am not saying you are wrong or I am right but this is how i have interpuited it when i was researching finishing a 80% lower.
« Last Edit: October 18, 2014, 06:12:13 PM by tstuart34 »

Offline AAllen

  • NFOA Co-Founder
  • *****
  • Join Date: Dec 2008
  • Posts: 4275
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #10 on: October 20, 2014, 10:03:24 AM »
I would agree with tstuart on this one; yes the language is should be, but the ATF would enforce it like it says shall be if the firearm in question was to transfer and the courts would side with the ATF.

Offline Mali

  • NFOA Full Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Jan 2013
  • Posts: 1718
  • My life, my rights.
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #11 on: October 20, 2014, 10:20:51 AM »
I agree.
A good general rule of thumb when dealing with government regs and documents is to read them in the most restrictive way possible as, regrettably, that will be how the drones will use them.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. - Ronald Reagan

Offline Phantom

  • NFOA Full Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Feb 2012
  • Location: Omaha/Bellevue
  • Posts: 503
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #12 on: October 20, 2014, 12:54:53 PM »
I think People are getting hung on the wording semantics here. 

If you build one for personal use only....then your considered a homebuilder.

But if you try to sell the same weapon.....then you have become and are now considered a manufacturer at that point.


 
"If the primates that we came from had known that someday politicians would come out of the...the gene pool, they'd a stayed up in the trees and written evolution off as a bad idea.....Hell, I always thought the opposable thumb was overrated.  "-- Sheridan, "Babylon 5"

Offline newfalguy101

  • Forum Member
  • *
  • Join Date: May 2012
  • Posts: 217
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #13 on: October 20, 2014, 06:01:49 PM »
I think People are getting hung on the wording semantics here. 

If you build one for personal use only....then your considered a homebuilder.

But if you try to sell the same weapon.....then you have become and are now considered a manufacturer at that point.



Umm no...................

Offline AWick

  • Steel Benefactor
  • *
  • Join Date: Jun 2013
  • Location: West Millard
  • Posts: 350
  • Home is where your armory is.
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #14 on: October 20, 2014, 10:23:56 PM »
Couple of things. 1) semantics matter, especially in not wanting to go to prison. 2) I don't  have an understanding or have seen a consensus on what to do with a home built lower after you die and want to pass it on to your children. So, an answer of "ummm no" without a reasonable response doesn't really further the debate in a meaningful way. Maybe you could elaborate, not just in the homebuilder and not selling it, but more to what the OP was enquiring about.
"Well-regulated" meant well equipped, trained and disciplined... not controlled with an iron fist.

Offline AAllen

  • NFOA Co-Founder
  • *****
  • Join Date: Dec 2008
  • Posts: 4275
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #15 on: October 21, 2014, 10:45:47 AM »
The term "Manufacturer" as most people consider it is a licensed manufacturer and they produce many guns per year (someone earlier said 50 was the cut off number) so a "Homebuilder" that decides to, or because of death it automatically, transfers would not be a "Manufacturer".  But in this case the "Homebuilder" would become a manufacturer even if they only manufactured one firearms in their lifetime.  I can see nothing that says a homebuilder must have any markings on what they build as long as it is only them that posses and owns what they built; but as soon as that rifle goes to be transferred to someone else either by a) an active decision to sell the firearm, or b) because of death of the homebuilder the rules would change because the "Homebuilder" becomes a manufacturer and the firearm requires markings.  If it is option a the manufacturer/homebuilder would simply need to add the appropriate markings before making the sale, if it is option b the "Homebuilder's" next of kin could be considered guilty of receiving an illegal firearm. 

Is there a mechanism to avoid any charges, my guess is that upon discovering the firearm if the next of kin contacted police and turned it over there would not be any charges, but an investigation into what the "Homebuilder" had been doing would take place.

The recommendation to put markings (serial number of some type, who manufactured and when) on a firearm you manufacture as a "Homebuilder" is as much about protecting yourself and your family from unneeded attention as it is about following all the rules and regulations, because truthfully they tend to have conflicts with themselves.  Nothing of these marking needs to be reported to anyone (but you should keep a record of some type for yourself, especially if producing more than one).

Offline Husker_Fan

  • NFOA Full Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Apr 2010
  • Location: Omaha
  • Posts: 717
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #16 on: October 21, 2014, 12:08:58 PM »
The GCA does not require a SN for a homebuilder to dispose of a gun. So long as you were not building it with the intent to sell, and only decided to sell at some later time, you are not a manufacturer.

Offline newfalguy101

  • Forum Member
  • *
  • Join Date: May 2012
  • Posts: 217
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #17 on: October 21, 2014, 06:15:02 PM »
Couple of things. 1) semantics matter, especially in not wanting to go to prison. 2) I don't  have an understanding or have seen a consensus on what to do with a home built lower after you die and want to pass it on to your children. So, an answer of "ummm no" without a reasonable response doesn't really further the debate in a meaningful way. Maybe you could elaborate, not just in the homebuilder and not selling it, but more to what the OP was enquiring about.

Ummm read the entire thread its all there already

Offline newfalguy101

  • Forum Member
  • *
  • Join Date: May 2012
  • Posts: 217
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #18 on: October 21, 2014, 06:20:34 PM »
The 50/year I mentioned is mearly the number at which a licensed manufacturer must pay taxes on said manufactured guns, and is irrelevant as far as hombuilders go, because, if a guy is building that quantity, at some point very quickly ATF will be contacting said feller and telling him to get a license!!

Offline newfalguy101

  • Forum Member
  • *
  • Join Date: May 2012
  • Posts: 217
Re: 80% lower, after you die!
« Reply #19 on: October 21, 2014, 06:23:22 PM »
For what its worth, I NEVER said a person SHOUDNT serialize a homebuild, in fact I cant think of a single good reason NOT to.

To my way of thinking, if I had the ability to build  a 80%, I most certainly would mark it, if for no other reason than to prove that I did it all by myself ( with a lil help from my friends  LOL )