Would This Qualify as Semi-Automatic?

[FullMetalJacket]

Imagine an AR-15 type rifle whose bolt locked open after every shot (regardless of whether the magazine was empty) and which required a press of a button/lever to release the bolt to chamber the next round.

Would such a design be semi-automatic? (I understand no one here is giving legal advice, just give me your opinion.)

Would such a design be more appealing than, say, a straight pull bolt action, pump, etc. as an alternative for shooting AR type rifles?

[CmdrChuch]

There's already been a lot of talk about this. Some people seem to think that the disruption of the action is enough to consider it semi-automatic, but others rely on the part of the PC that mentions if it has all the parts to be a semi-automatic, then it's a semi-automatic.

[SkyHawk]

Imagine an AR-15 type rifle whose bolt locked open after every shot (regardless of whether the magazine was empty) and which required a press of a button/lever to release the bolt to chamber the next round.

Would such a design be semi-automatic? (I understand no one here is giving legal advice, just give me your opinion.)

Would such a design be more appealing than, say, a straight pull bolt action, pump, etc. as an alternative for shooting AR type rifles?

If you could simply hold the bolt release button/lever down while firing, then wouldn't it be semi auto? It would take more than a simple spring under the bolt catch to prevent that. You would need a combination of parts what would not allow the release button to work, until the bolt had stopped against the stop. That would take some doing.

[Quiet]

Imagine an AR-15 type rifle whose bolt locked open after every shot (regardless of whether the magazine was empty) and which required a press of a button/lever to release the bolt to chamber the next round.

Would such a design be semi-automatic? (I understand no one here is giving legal advice, just give me your opinion.)

Yes, it will still be considered semi-auto.

Since the all the parts to make the firearm a functional semi-auto are still installed on the firearm, it's still considered a semi-auto.

CA DOJ made this determination back in 2000.
When these types of devices (were first created & used in the UK during the 1990s) were first brought up as possible compliance devices to make a semi-auto firearm into a non semi-auto firearm.

Need to remove parts (gas tube/piston, plug gas block) so the firearm can not operate as a functional semi-auto, for the firearm to no longer be considered semi-auto.

[Cokebottle]

Ya, I'm not sold on the legality of it.
But a friend took his AR to the Corona PD and they opined that it was compliant.

[deephouse]

OP look up Tracking Point BSD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV3WqbEymA4

[deephouse]

If you could simply hold the bolt release button/lever down while firing, then wouldn't it be semi auto? It would take more than a simple spring under the bolt catch to prevent that. You would need a combination of parts what would not allow the release button to work, until the bolt had stopped against the stop. That would take some doing.

There is a device on the market where the scenario you describe is possible.

However, with the Tracking Point BSD, you must release the lever and then press it again to be able to fire the firearm.

I HAD this on my AR Pistol. Which renders it "not a semi automatic". And therefore I had a regular magazine drop on it. I no longer have that AR pistol for the record.

https://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=1443304

[Drew Eckhardt]

Imagine an AR-15 type rifle whose bolt locked open after every shot (regardless of whether the magazine was empty) and which required a press of a button/lever to release the bolt to chamber the next round.

Would such a design be semi-automatic? (I understand no one here is giving legal advice, just give me your opinion.)

Would such a design be more appealing than, say, a straight pull bolt action, pump, etc. as an alternative for shooting AR type rifles?

Such guns are legal in places like the UK which ban semiautomatic rifles.

A plain English reading of 11 CCR 5471(hh) suggests the gun would be semiautomatic if the gun could function semiautomatically while you held down the bolt release.

Conversely, if the mechanism worked like a disconnector it would not be semiautomatic because it would not be "functionally able" to "reload the chamber each time the trigger is pulled and released" without modification passing through a disassembled state in which it was not semiautomatic and therefore not an assault weapon in spite of the detachable magazine.

I wouldn't want to do that without a DOJ opinion, and unlike BATFE they leave evaluating compliance as an exercise for prosecutors.

(hh) “Semiautomatic” means a firearm functionally able to fire a single cartridge, eject the empty case, and reload the chamber each time the trigger is pulled and released.

[Gowking]

OP look up Tracking Point BSD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV3WqbEymA4

This, it takes a pull of the finger and a push of another digit on the special bolt catch to complete the cycle.

[MASTERLAB]

Had the same thought myself a year ago, making the bolt stop actuate after every shot. I would not consider such a rifle semi-auto. But I am not a lawyer, lawmaker or judge

[saki302]

https://www.range365.com/franklin-armory-drops-non-semiauto-providence-pistol-rifle

[NapaPlinker]

OP look up Tracking Point BSD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV3WqbEymA4

I mean it seems legit.

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[SmallShark]

what is the point of owning such rifles?