museum and machine guns

S

steveno

New member
when a museum has some machine guns and they are posted as de-activated does the atf still keep track of them? I don't know what was done to de-activate them other than removing a firing pin or some part of the fire control has been removed. none of these guns have been welded on that I can see. there is a Thompson , BAR and a number of world war 2 machine guns. there is even a 37 mm anti-tank cannon but since you might not be able to get ammo for it that is probably de-activating by itself. these machine guns have been there for over 50 years

if you happen to be traveling through Hastings , Nebraska they have a pretty decent gun display including the mentioned machine guns.

just curious
 
There was a guy in my hometown that had a little hands on museum where you could go in and pick stuff up, work the actions etc. He had 10 BAR's on display, a few Thompson's and a few MP-40's. he claimed to have a lot more of them in storage that he bought after WWII for less than a dollar each. He said they were still active and that the ATF came by and did a monthly check. I have no idea what became of them after he died. There are still two small artillery pieces in front of the building.
 
I know of two museums that have full auto weapons on display that are on loan from the military. They are fully functioning weapons. The military is required to inventory them monthly.
 
Depending on who does the work, deactivating a machinegun can be done in such a way as to be both permanent and invisible. Before 1968, many MGs were deactivated by removing the firing pins, welding a plug into the barrel or deactivated in other ways that were not visible. After 1968, all machineguns had to be registered, whether functional or not (which is why most of us with "DEWATs" opened them up and registered them as live guns, state or local law permitting).

AFAIK, those guns that were deactivated with BATFE (ATTD) approval and left deactivated are still considered properly deactivated and legal if registered. In fact, the legal owner of a registered but deactivated MG can apply for permission to open up the gun and restore it to functionality, state or local law permitting.

Jim
 
Pennsylvania Museum & Historical Commission has a HUGE load of fully auto firearms, from pistols all the way to aircraft cannon...

Everyone that I saw had been deactivated by welding plugs in the barrel at the breech end and drilling the underside of the barrel/receiver junction with a pretty large hole.
 
if the machine guns in the museum are de-activated by plugging the barrel or some other way besides removing the firing pins they at least didn't hack them too much. they don't look like they have been touched
 
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