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disabling a firearm?

daveyburt

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A question for the NES brain trust...

A friend of mine lost his dad recently. His dad had a few long guns. I informed my buddy about the 180 days thing. He has no desire to get licensed but wants to keep the pieces as family heirlooms.

What is necessary to make them legally non-functional so he can hold onto them?

There are a couple shotty's, a couple .22 rifles, and a Garand.[sad2]

Thanks in advance for any information.

-d
 
you've got to convince him not to destroy the firearms, argggg. tell him you'll hold them as you are licensed, then slowly work on him to the point where he at least doesn't destroy the garand.

keeping them as heirlooms but destroying them is pointless. especially the garand, that's a piece of history.
 
In MA? I don't think its possible without completely destroying the guns. Don't forget, we are talking about a state that will charge you for having empty shells.
In another state, I can't say.
 
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I believe demilling i.e. torch cutting the receiver in three parts is the only way. He could always bring them out of state so as not to ruin them. I am in no way advocating demilling them.
 
Swap out the Garand for a POS Moisin-Nagant and let him torch that. All olde guns look the same to the heathens. The you slip out the back with your new treasure
 
guys - i know - i felt a little nauseous asking the question.
I feel the same as you do. He asked me what needs to be done to disable them. I'd like to answer his question first, then tell him about the sin he's about to commit.

If his brother wasn't such a drunkard, I'm sure he'd have his permit....but....
:/
 
tell him destroying his heirlooms, period.

IIRC you can close the chamber with a weld and then immobilize the action for the LOOK of a firearm, but to do that to a garand is sacrelige.
 
How about removing the firing pins (or FCG) and storing those someplace else? That would render them non-functional, but not damage them.

Or tell him to just get a place in a free state and store them there.
 
you can prob get away without cutting them up, get a steel rod insert into barrel, remove firing pin and weld over hole? Id imagine that would solve the problem
 
MA is shall issue for FID's - just convince him to get the license so the guns can be preserved.

What's so difficult? Either he wants to keep them or he doesn't; a FID seems cheaper than getting them properly demilled.
 
What's so difficult? Either he wants to keep them or he doesn't; a FID seems cheaper than getting them properly demilled.

Plus he could always sell them later without issue. If he demill's them then the value will be virtually nil (if not nil) to anyone else.

Besides, a decent shotgun would be good for home defense.
 
How about removing the firing pins (or FCG) and storing those someplace else? That would render them non-functional, but not damage them.

That was my original thought. Not sure it's legit though. Do you need a permit to buy a pin/bolt? - That's where I think that may fall flat.

I'm digging the idea of welding the bolt closed - well, about as much as you could 'dig' anything like this..

ETA - he's got a couple other brothers who may be 'permittable'. We'll try to exhaust that option next.
 
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Cheaper to get shall issue FID than the other path. BTW he respects his father??...clearly not as he is planning on destroying stuff that was near and dear to him.
 
Tell him if he does not want them to shoot just remove the firing pins get a FID OR LTC but not to destroy good guns.
 
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That was my original thought. Not sure it's legit though. Do you need a permit to buy a pin/bolt? - That's where I think that may fall flat.

I'm digging the idea of welding the bolt closed - well, about as much as you could 'dig' anything like this..

Explain to him that doing such modifications (this goes for you doing it too) gets his 'man card' revoked for life.

Typically you only need to have licenses (in the non-free states) to get the receivers/frames for guns. Firing pins and bolts don't require any licenses, since they're not looked at as being what the gun is built on.

Personally, I would advise him to get the FID and safely store the firearms and NOT destroy them. If it was my kid, I'd come back from the dead and kick his ass in the extreme for doing that. It is a 'full-on retard' type move IMO...
 
Tell him to just get the FID. It is the easiest and cheapest and what his dad would have approved. If his dad kept those for that long, I seriously doubt he would be ok with defacing them. Your friend doesn't want to fire them and use them but would his kid one day or another close relative that he could pass them down to?
 
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Tell him to just the the FID. It is the easiest and cheapest and what his dad would have approved. If his dad kept those for that long, I seriously doubt he would be ok with defacing them. Your friend doesn't want to fire them and use them but would his kid one day or another close relative that he could pass them down to?

This^^^^^^^^^^^

Once they're gone, he'll never get them back. If his dad didn't want him to have and keep them I'm sure he would have said or done something to facilitate that. Absent that, its safe to assume his dad wanted him to keep the guns.
 
Making it a non-gun (De-milling) under federal law will require that you do things to those guns that will bring tears to a grown man's eyes. State law just requires it be "non-operable", but if vague on how far away from "non-operable" is required. This is why stripped frames are clearly non-guns under MGL, and why he MSP or Boston crime lab needs to certify a gun as operational for prosecution. The real issue is how does one do it so obviously that any LE agency would recognize it, but not destroy the gun. When you consider the high profile arrests for rocket launcher tubes labeled "INERT" and for 37mm flare guns (mistaking them for 40mm grenade launchers), I would say this is an impossible task.
 
Tell him to just the the FID. It is the easiest and cheapest and what his dad would have approved. If his dad kept those for that long, I seriously doubt he would be ok with defacing them. Your friend doesn't want to fire them and use them but would his kid one day or another close relative that he could pass them down to?

The FID would probably work for all but the Garand.
 
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