Are fully automatic weapons legal?

The BATFE has been known to go to great lengths to prosecute people for having any kind of weapon capable of illegally firing multiple rounds per trigger pull. At the range where I work we once had a BATFE agent bring in a confiscated semi-auto Steyr AUG. He had tons of ammo with him and he tried for hours to get it to fire a burst, but it was only shooting semi-auto. Finally, as can happen with a bullpup design, it eventually bump-fired one short burst. That was enough for him; he immediately packed up and left, presumably to write up his report on how the rifle was capable of illegally firing full-auto.
 
it will fire until there is no more ammo to feed
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Not always, sometime they just pop off two or three and then shoot fine for a couple, and then do their funny trick again.

I had this happen once with a KG-9. The first time was a real surprise, the second time I cleared it and traded it in for a Mini-14.
 
Unless I'm mistaken, BATFE has already cleared the Slide-Fire stocks as legal. Technically, it's one bullet per trigger pull.
 
They are legal for two reasons.

1. It's one shot for each pull of the trigger.

2. They are new and the Government just hasn't gotten around to adopting new legislation to cover them.

I find such videos a little funny. You can make it look easy but in fact it might not be so easy to actually make work reliably. In other words it might be an impractical solution.

Now I don't own one and haven't used one, but maybe someone here has. I would be interesting to know from someone with first hand experience just how reliable this functions.

The other thing is that "work around" inventions like these usually back fire badly. Because it get's around current legislation it means we will probably see new legislation and you never know what other things might get slipped into the new laws.
 
Slide Fire stocks are legal because all they do is help you bump-fire the rifle; the trigger is still being pulled each time. Bump-firing is where you use the rifle's recoil to bounce it off your shoulder and back into the trigger. If you do it right and you have the right setup, you can get the rifle to fire pretty fast. All the Slide Fire stock does is allow the pistol grip and stock to spring back and forth, making bump-firing a lot easier and simulating full-auto fire.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if the BATFE bans them at some point.

EDIT: Oops, I didn't see lcpipers post, where he already said basically the same thing I did.
 
One of the mods here once postulated in regards to some asinine regulation, including SlideFire stocks, that those things were so cumbersome and unreliable, that it would be advantageous if criminals did indeed start to use them.
 
The Glock 18 is a selective fire pistol.
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Indeed it is. I fired one Thursday. It was actually quite controllable although I'm not sure how practical it is.
With that exception, are there any others, the Glock is a semiautomatic pistol.
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Well, it's a little different than the AR-15/CZ75 situation.

The G17 is a semi-automatic pistol, and all the other Glock pistols are semi-automatic, but the select fire Glock, has its own separate model number--18.

In like manner, there is a variant of the Beretta 92 pistol, the Beretta 93R, that is a 3 round burst automatic. Like the Glock 18, it is designated by a different model number than the semi-automatic Beretta pistols making that situation different from the AR15/CZ75 situation.

The 1911 has been made (both conversions and factory experimentals) in full auto variants, but it's different as well in that there hasn't ever been a full auto production 1911 as far as I know.

The CZ75, however, has been made in both semi-automatic and fully automatic versions, both, to my knowledge, designated with the same model number--CZ75.

But, like the AR-15, the CZ75 (the small number of select fire versions of both notwithstanding) is still considered to be a semi-automatic firearm.
 
Not always, sometime they just pop off two or three and then shoot fine for a couple, and then do their funny trick again.
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This happened to me with a brand new Del-ton echo 316 . First trip to the range I was shooting and everything seemed great . About 150 rounds in to the day I fired a shot and it burped out 3 or 4 . The guy I was with is a Marine and I asked him to check it out . He started shooting and all seemed cool for the first mag (10 rounds here in CA ) He popped in the next mag and started doing some real test like rapid fire then rapid to slow back to rapid nothing all good . Then next mag he tried pulling the trigger and holding it back and slowly releasing it , BURRRP 4 shots fired on slow trigger release :eek: . We could make it do it almost every time we slowly released the trigger .

We put it up knowing there was something wrong with it . I called Del-Ton and they seemed very eager to get it back and fix it at no charge :o hmm I wonder why ;). They told me it needed a new disconnect and hammer . I have not had a problem since.

Just thought I'd tell my story of a new rifle malfunctioning with no work being done on it at all .
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Even a FFL can't build a full auto for his own enjoyment.
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Actually, he can if he has an 07 FFL (manufacturer) and a Class 2 SOT (Special Occupational Taxpayer). The full auto gun then can never be transferred, except to LE or military, or to another FFL/SOT who has a demonstration request letter from a LE agency. It cannot be converted back to semi-auto (once a machine gun, always a machine gun under current US law). If it is not otherwise legally transferred and the FFL gives up his/her license, it has to be destroyed.
 
Once a machine gun, always a machine gun.
On an AR-15 receiver this is true. There are two modifications that need to be made to install the full-auto parts. You will note the extra pin above the selector switch in the picture posted earlier. That's one modification. Once this hole has been drilled to accept the auto disconnect, you own a machine gun by BATF rules even if there are no full-auto parts installed.
Almost all semi-auto firearms require some modification to the receiver to install full auto parts.
Modifications that allow a semi-auto to fire full-auto (like triger sear adjustments) without installing the full auto parts are often dangerous and can results in the injury or death of the shooter. That's why it's so important to take a gun out of service if it doubles or triples on a trigger pull. This is commonally referred to as slam fire.
The only guns that were built for slam fire are sub-machine guns that use pistol ammo. They generally fired from an open bolt.
Personally, I don't care very much for small full auto weapons. They just don't do a very good job. Semi-auto weapons can fire so fast that full-auto is not needed in almost all situations. I used a full auto m-16 in the military. I was not impressed. Select fire was much better. I was lucky, I never had to enter a close range fire fight were full auto would have been usefull.
Still, for those who want a full auto weapon, there is a legal path to ownership.
 
Actually, he can if he has an 07 FFL (manufacturer) and a Class 2 SOT (Special Occupational Taxpayer). The full auto gun then can never be transferred, except to LE or military, or to another FFL/SOT who has a demonstration request letter from a LE agency. It cannot be converted back to semi-auto (once a machine gun, always a machine gun under current US law). If it is not otherwise legally transferred and the FFL gives up his/her license, it has to be destroyed.
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Well, sorta.

1. He must be a licensed manufacturer, and to legally get that license he has to be in business to justify it. So, he may be making it for his own enjoyment, but he's only legally allowed to do so because of his business.

2. He can only possess it as long as he's in business because as soon as he's no longer in business, the license goes away and when the license goes away, so does the gun. So he may be making the gun for his own enjoyment, but the gun is never really his.

So he's not making the gun for himself because it's never his gun, and the only reason he can make it is because of his business. Most people would say that if you make something that never permanently belongs to you and that you can only posess by virtue of, and during your employement in a certain profession and while you have a particular license then you made it and have it for work and because of work, not really for your "own enjoyment".
 
Interestingly, then Major George Chin, U.S.M.C., who wrote what was described as "the seminal work on machine guns", though today it might be somewhat dated, offered the following on machine guns and their development. "The government never produced a decent machine gun".

The Major Chin was an acknowledged expert, who most laudably of John Browning. Seems that Mr. Browning did his weapons development work with nary a bit of government support. I believe that he offered his designs to the U.S. Government free of charge, without payment of any loyalties.

Among other things that Browning might have been described as would, I think be, a loyal American.
 
On an AR-15 receiver this is true. There are two modifications that need to be made to install the full-auto parts.
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Not with the old ones like my SP1, this is incorrect. All I need is the drop in parts no modifications required, it's like this from the factory and it's not a machinegun. But it also means if I acquire the parts and if they are anywhere near in close proximity, like in the same building or property, then I do have a machinegun.
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I did some looking and it looks like I was ill-informed and must recant :o
 
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The BATF had maufactures slightly modify the old SP1 receiver so that the full auto conversion would not be so easy. This has made the older SP1 design a "collectable".
 
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