Would this be illegal?

I had, dad still has, his dad's old .22lr/.410 o/u from back in the 40's or 50's. I shot it quite a bit as a kid, it had one trigger with a selector switch for whichever barrel you wanted to fire.

The switch was worn, and if the user didn't pay close attention, would slip into a spot that allowed both barrels to fire at once. Definitely got the squirrels' attention!

We had it fixed years ago, more out of annoyance than worrying about it being a "machine gun".
 
Get the gun fixed - firing both barrels at once puts a lot of stress on the hinge pin and will severely accelerate wear on the gun rendering it even more unsafe than it currently is.

It isn't a machinegun if it is malfunctioning and wasn't altered
 
No not a machine gun you are still firing the gun only once. One trigger function one firing of the weapon. The function of the weapon fires 2 shells simultaniously in one shot, not automatically. Two shells but only one shot and you cannot fire another shot without reloading.

(b) Machinegun. The term 'machinegun'
means any weapon which shoots, is
designed to shoot, or can be readily restored
to shoot, automatically more than
one shot, without manual reloading, by a
single function of the trigger.
Click to expand...

http://www.atf.gov/publications/download/p/atf-p-5300-4.pdf (pg77)
 
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I don't think the ATF would care but I don't want to be an armchair lawyer.

I can make a machine-gun by pulling both triggers of my Stoeger at once anyhow.
 
Disagree...

No not a machine gun you are still firing the gun only once. One trigger function one firing of the weapon. The function of the weapon fires 2 shells simultaniously in one shot, not automatically. Two shells but only one shot and you cannot fire another shot without reloading.
Click to expand...

I disagree. I understand your logic, both shells go off as one shot, but I believe that any court would interpret it as 2 shells = 2 shots, with a single trigger pull. The fact that the two shots are not fired sequentially will not be the deciding factor.

A volley gun with 2 or more barrels (could be 37 if desired, right?) firing all either simultaneously or sequentially is a machine gun for legal purposes. There is nothing in the descriptive part of the staute that says the gun has to reload and fire (although most designs do) more than once with a single trigger pull to be a machine gun, only that it fire more than once with a single trigger pull.

A Gatling gun is not a machine gun, legally, so long as it is hand operated, each so many degrees of lever movement is considered a trigger stroke, so by cranking the lever, you are considered to merely be pulling the trigger multiple times. HOWEVER, hook that same Gatling gun up to an electric motor, where a single push of the switch turns it on, and voila', its legally a machine gun!

Go ahead and make your case in court, all you have to lose is your money, your rights, and 10 years of your life. You might win, but I'd be betting against it.
 
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