“…any weapon or device capable of being concealed on the person from which a shot can be discharged through the energy of an explosive, a pistol or revolver having a smooth bore designed or redesigned to fire a fixed shotgun shell, weapons with combination shotgun and rifle barrels 12″ or more, less than 18″ in length, from which only a single discharge can be made from either barrel without manual reloading, and shall include any weapon which may be readily restored to fire. Such term shall not include a pistol or revolver having a rifled bore, or rifled bores, or weapons designed, made or intended to be fired from the shoulder and not capable of firing fixed ammunition.” 26 USC sec. 5845(e).

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However for HK guns it is pretty much all there is, especially if you want an MP-5 type gun. And if you want a version of the Colt 9mm AR machine gun, the auto sear route is more plentiful than the few registered receiver conversions, and the even fewer factory Colt guns, as the model was introduced (1985) right around the same time as the 1986 ban. And in general the sear or other registered part is cheaper to buy than the same gun as a registered receiver, both because you aren’t getting a gun also, and because it is less desirable. However you may find that due to the escalating value of the semi-auto host guns, the conversion part already installed in a host gun may cost as much as a registered receiver conversion of the same gun, like an IMI semi-auto UZI with a registered bolt installed versus a registered receiver UZI conversion. It pays to shop around.

Penalties for NFA violations
A violation of the NFA can result in a felony conviction, punishable by up to ten years in prison, and/or a $250,000 fine. See 26 USC sec. 5871. The US Sentencing Guidelines ordinarily require prison time, even for a first offense, however various mitigating and aggravating factors can raise or lower the possible sentence range for a first offense.

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ATF has created interim rules to implement PL 103-322, and they are a little more specific, and a little more onerous:

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Size Chart

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Machine guns are also treated differently. In 1986, as part of the Firearm Owners’ Protection Act (FOPA), Congress prohibited individuals from owning machine guns, and made it an affirmative defense that the machine gun was registered before the act took effect (which was 5/19/86). See 18 USC sec. 922(o) for the law. Thus as an individual you can only legally own a machine gun that was registered before that date. Any registered after that date can only be owned by SOT’s, law enforcement, and government entities. A SOT may not keep these machine guns after surrendering his SOT. In order to transfer one of these machine guns, the SOT must have a request from an agency able to own one for a demonstration. Or an order from one of those agencies to buy one. A class 2 SOT can make machine guns for research and development purposes, or for sale to dealers as samples, or for sale to government entities. These are commonly called post-86 machine guns.