Prince Mag Lock. Safe to use?

[sammy]

Hello all. I recently put together my first AR build (minus the upper which is on the way). I also purchased a Prince 50 mag lock to comply with the fixed magazine type of build I am putting together. (just don't like the feel of the monster man grip I tried) I have heard on this forum and from others that this way of fixing the magazine might pose legal problems if i get approached by the wrong police officer. According to the DOJ website it does meet the requirements of needing a tool to remove the magazine so why the trouble? Has their been a conviction of an gun owner having a prince mag lock? Just looking for advise, Thanks in advance, Sammy

[grywlfbg]

Dig through the couple of threads about the new "proposed" DOJ law... er clarifying of the regulation :rolleyes:

Bottom line is that currently those "clarifications" are not in the books as it were. There's a comment period running until 11/17. Based on the actual law, it claims that as long as it requires a tool to remove the mag then you're fine. I have a Prince50 on my AR at the moment but my next build will be and SRB or MonsterMan build. Some think there may be a list at the end of the year (either triggered by this change or just done by the DoJ) - but read the other threads for all the prognistications.

A Prince50 isn't very expensive. I'd run it that way until something changes - I was just at the Coyote Point range on Wednesday (which is run by the county sheriff's office) and no one said anything. So just monitor this site - You'll hear about it here as soon as it happens.

Chris

[drclark]

Under the current laws and regulations, the prince-50 kit should be legal. The new regs the DOJ is proposing are designed to make the prince-50 kit illegal (and also declare that they were illegal all-along in a sort of ex-post-facto sort of way).

That said, the answer to your question is that it all depends on the officer that you are approached by (not they way your mag is fixed). The AW training for police officers does not seem to have been updated for some time. You may very well run into an officer who is "cool" and is knowledgeable about the laws and who may have bought his own OLL. You may also run into an officer that is an anti or is still under the impression that anything that looks remotely like an AR-15 is illegal.

There have been reports of OLLs being confiscated. I believe there are 2 separate incidents in Orange county and 1 in the San Jose/Bay area. the Bay area one was a forum member that goes by "SwimmingPoolGuy". We have not heard any updates from him in some time so we don't know how his case is going. I don't know if anyone has been charged with anything or if there have been any OLL related convictions at this time. If there were there would have been a thread about 100 pages long here.

I have been shooting my OLL for a couple of months now at angeles range north of LA and have not had any problems yet. However when I drive to/from the range I am sure to follow the traffic laws as best I can. You probably run the biggest risk of a LEO encounter as a result of a traffic stop. With that in mind I always transport my OLL rifle in a locked case to be on the safe side. Before the ownership transfer and site outage there used to be a thread "papers you should have when out shooting your OLL" that listed all the relavant laws, rules/reg, and court decisions that might be useful to have in the event you need to respectfully educate a curious officer on what an OLL is.

It is probably a good idea to assume that there is a finite chance that you could run into the "wrong" officer whenever you take an OLL out. There is a certain amount of risk that any one of us could turn into that "test case". As long as you're following the laws as they are written and not doing something stupid (like building an OLL into a non-SB23-compliant AW), the members of this forum will stand behind you. If you do not want to take that risk, then you should keep your OLL at home in the safe until all the dust settles.

drc