As the sears do turn the host gun into a machine gun, the host gun is no longer regulated as a semi-auto, and is not subject to 18 USC sec. 922(v), (assault weapon law) or sec. 922(r) (ban on domestic assembly from imported parts of an unsporting semi-auto rifle or shotgun), for example. Thus you may put an HK sear in a post 1989 import ban SAR-8 rifle, for instance, and then put a regular pistol grip stock set on that otherwise thumbhole gun, as well as a regular slotted flash hider. The host gun need not even have been on the planet when the sear was made. This is how F.J. Vollmer keeps on cranking out MP-5′s even though the new making of MG’s for civilians was ended in 1986. As long as the sear is in there you may also have the barrel cut down to below 16 inches; a machine gun is not also a short barreled rifle. HOWEVER, if the sear is placed into a second gun, the first gun is no longer a machine gun, and must comply with the laws regulating it as a semi-auto. In my example, the barrel must grow back, and the thumbhole stock needs to return. If the sear in question is a AR-15 Accessories drop-in auto sear, the gun needs to have the M-16 internal parts needed for the sear removed as well, lest it be induced to fire more than one shot at a time, as was done in the U.S. v. Staples case.
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DESTRUCTIVE DEVICES
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