Non Functioning firearm

[CD3]

Not sure if I should post here or another area of CalGuns


I was discussing this topic with a friend. What are the laws regarding the possession of a non functioning (welded bolt, plugged barrel and firing pin removed ) WWII type machine gun in the State of California or the United States ? We tried looking online but couldn't locate anything to conclude our debate..

[mikenewgun87]

Turn it in to a gun buy back...


I joke I joke...

[AreWeFree]

It's a firearm, all laws apply.

[reverser]

It’s all about the receiver. If it is an intact and real receiver, it’s a no go. 3-4 diagonal cuts to destroy per ATF rules. Unless it is hacked up per their specs it is a functional machine gun. Welding it back together is manufacturing as far as I know.

[russ69]

Most guys use dummy receivers to make non-firing replicas.

[BigPimping]

It's dangerous and you better give it to the police

[Springfield45]

It's dangerous and you better give it to the police

Don't listen to him. Fix it and enjoy!

[SVT-40]

It's called a "Dewat" and is still a machine gun.

The term "Dewat" refers to "Deactivated war trophy"...

Possession is a felony unless it was registered with the BATFE before 1986.


A DEWAT is an unserviceable gun that has an intact receiver,
thus, as of the GCA of 1968, it is a machine gun. In 1955 the
ATT decided that a gun that was a registered war souvenir (or for
a time, a contraband unregistered gun) could be removed from the
coverage of the NFA if it was rendered unserviceable by steel
welding the breech closed, and steel welding the barrel to the
frame. All this was to be done under the supervision of an ATT
inspector. See Revenue Ruling 55-590. The gun became a wall
hanger, ornament, like parts sets now. This was not the same as
an unserviceable gun, which was still subject to the NFA, but
exempt from the transfer tax. These steel welded guns were
DEWAT's. DEWAT stands for DEactivated WAr Trophy; it was
regularly done for servicemen who wished to bring home NFA war
souvenirs. It was also done to WWI and WWII era guns imported as
surplus by companies like ARMEX International, and Interarmco,
and then sold through the mail in ads in gun magazines. The
glory days before 1968. A DEWAT must now be registered to be
legal, there is no longer a legal difference between a DEWAT and
an unserviceable weapon. A few states only allow individuals to
own DEWAT machine guns, Iowa comes to mind.

A DEWAT machine gun transfers tax free, as a "curio or
ornament", on a Form 5. To be a DEWAT, a gun should have a steel
weld in the chamber, and have the plugged barrel steel welded to
the frame or receiver. Having said that, a gun may be registered
as unserviceable and not be de-activated in this manner. It may
have cement or lead in the barrel, or a piece of rod welded,
soldered or brazed in the barrel. Despite the repeated warnings
from ATT, apparently DEWATs were made or imported that did not
have steel welds. And a weapon registered as "unserviceable"
before 1968 was not held to these standards. One (ostensible)
reason machine gun receivers were redefined as machine guns in
1968, thus bringing DEWATs under the NFA regulation, was that
folks were regularly and easily making their DEWATs live guns w/o
complying with the law. Some barrel plugs were so poor they would
fall out with little coaxing. The thing with buying a DEWAT is
that it may be easy to make it live, or it may be hard. The gun
may be pristine or rather beat up. They usually cost less than a
live gun because they will not be 100% original if made live.
However if you just want a shooter buying a DEWAT and getting it
made live can often be cheaper than an original gun. DEWAT guns
are best not bought sight unseen, unless you do not wish to make
it live, but have it as a wall hanger. The exact state and extent
of the welds will determine how hard it is to make live. However
if you want a wall hanger, a dummy gun is much cheaper, and
requires no paperwork. They can look totally authentic. They do
not have an intact machine gun receiver, but a partially machined
dummy receiver.

To re-activate the gun, ATF requires you file a fully
completed Form 1 (ie you get the gun on a Form 5, including the
law enforcement certification, photo and fingerprints. You have
to do all that again for the Form 1), and pay the $200 tax the
gun was exempt from before. Then when that is returned approved
you can break the welds off the receiver, and install a
replacement barrel, or get the weld out of the barrel, if a spare
cannot be found. In the alternative, a Class 2 manufacturer may
re-activate the gun, and file a Form 2 reflecting the gun is now
live. ATF considers re-activating to be manufacturing, and
requires the re-activator to mark the gun with his name and
address, whether done on a Form 1 or Form 2. If you sent your
DEWAT to a Class 2 to make live he would have to transfer it back
to you on a fully completed Form 4, as a tax paid transfer.
These procedures are not in the NFA law nor the regulations.
They are apparently based in part on the Revenue Rulings that
created the DEWAT program in the 1950's. As a DEWAT was not a
NFA firearm, before 1968, requiring the making tax made sense
then as you were making a machine gun out of something that was
the equivalent of a door stop, legally. Now that is not true,
the DEWAT is a machine gun, and no making tax should attach, as
you are not "making" anything, merely changing the gun from
unserviceable to serviceable.