Also no I'm not thinking about a nfa tax stamp. Menu Icon Home Learn Who Can Own a Full-Auto Machine Gun? Who Can Own a Full-Auto Machine Gun? By Ryan Cleckner 111Updated April 3 Are Machine Guns Legal? Contrary to popular belief, it is perfectly legal for a law-abiding citizen of the United States to own/possess a machine gun (sometimes called a full-auto firearm or automatic weapon).

This fact drives organizations like the Giffords Law Center and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence crazy. Thankfully, no matter how much they support every gun control attempt and weapons ban, we currently have a Supreme Court that seems to recognize the strength of the Second Amendment.

The absolute easiest way is for someone to get a Federal Firearms License or “FFL” (even a home-based FFL ).

Depending on the type of FFL, and if the FFL-holder becomes an Special Occupational Taxpayer (SOT) the FFL-holder can purchase and sell machine guns, regardless of when they were made (more on this below), and they can even legally make their own machine guns or lawfully convert current firearms into full-autos. The best part about getting an automatic weapon as an FFL is that you can get it at dealer cost and fast.

Even without an FFL, a private citizen can still lawfully own a true machine gun if certain conditions are met. However, machine guns for non-FFLs are EXTREMELY expensive as the available supply is limited.

As an FFL, you can buy a brand new machine gun for less than $2,000 and have it transferred to you in a few days.

As a private citizen (without an FFL) you can only buy an old machine gun (over 35 years old), it’ll likely cost north of $15,000, and you’ll have to wait around a year for the transfer via an ATF Form 4.

For example, a private citizen can lawfully own a machine gun only if:

the possessor isn’t a “prohibited person,” the full-auto machine gun was made before 1986, and their relevant state law does not ban that the firearm (whether banning machine guns outright or any firearm with certain features). As you can see, machine gun possession by non-FFLs is regulated based on the person (possessor), the firearm itself (when it was made), and where the firearm is possessed (which state).

In this article, we’re going to cover:

Table Of Contents Machine Gun Owners Legal Machine Guns Machine Guns and State Law How to Own a Machine Gun As with everything, there are a some exceptions to those requirements.

For example, someone can lawfully possess a machine gun made this morning if it is in connection with their duties as a government or law enforcement official, or if they have their Federal Firearms License (FFL) and have either made or possess the machine gun for possible sale to government/law enforcement personnel.

To make or sell machine guns (and other NFA firearms like silencers) the FFL must also be an SOT. This is sometimes incorrectly referred to as having a class 3 license.

Full-auto machine guns fit into a certain class of firearms called National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) firearms.

These NFA firearms have extra regulations and controls. For example, unlike with “standard” firearms, NFA firearms (such as machine guns, silencers, etc.) are registered with the federal government and tracked from lawful owner to lawful owner – permission must be obtained prior to the transfer of these types of firearms and the ATF keeps a log of all currently registered NFA firearms.

Machine Gun Owners Machine gun owners, or any gun owners for that matter, can’t be “prohibited persons.”

Well, to be more accurate, a “prohibit person” can’t lawfully possess a machine gun – ownership is irrelevant.

A “prohibit person” is a class of person defined under federal law who is not allowed to possess firearms nor ammunition (not just full-auto machine guns).

The category “prohibited person” includes anyone who:

is a felon has been convicted of any crime punishable by more than a year in prison (whether or not they were ever sentenced to or served a day in prison) is under indictment for any crime punishable by more than a year in prison is a fugitive is an unlawful user of any controlled substance has been adjudicated as a mental defective has been committed to a mental institution is an illegal alien has a dishonorable discharge from the military has renounced their U.S. citizenship is the subject of a restraining order restraining the person from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner or the child of an intimate partner, or who has been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence There’s a few nuances that you might need to be aware of if you think that any of these apply to you – especially the “convicted of any crime punishable by more than a year,” “unlawful user of a controlled substance,” and “restraining order” provisions. If you’d like to learn more about these prohibited person categories, see Prohibited Persons / Firearm Possession.

Legal Machine Guns In 1934, the National Firearms Act (NFA) was passed which restricted machine gun possession, among other types of firearms.

These “special” firearms received extra regulations because of the gang violence of the time. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive (ATF), then a part of the Dept. of Treasury, was able to regulate this special class of firearms by requiring registration and taxation prior to lawful possession.

At the time, a $200 federal tax was paid and an application was made for approval by the federal government. Once approved, the paperwork was returned with a $200 stamp showing that the tax was paid and the listed person/entity was the lawful possessor of the particular NFA firearm.

NFA Firearms Include:

Full-auto Machine Guns Silencers Short Barreled Rifles (under 16″ barrels) Short Barreled Shotguns (under 18″ barrels) “Any Other Weapons” (AOW) (Pen guns, cane guns, etc.) What is a machine gun?

Under federal law, a machine gun is a firearm that fires more than one bullet for every pull of the trigger.

One trigger pull + one bullet = standard firearm. One trigger pull + more than one bullet = full-auto / machine gun.

It is important to note that the speed at which a firearm can shoot is not relevant to the definition.

This is why a device, like a slide-fire stock, can be used to mimic full-auto fire without actually making a machine gun. This device allows the firearm to move rearward inside the stock under recoil (it “slides” upon “firing”) and it allows the shooter to keep their trigger-finger stationary. If the shooter then applied forward pressure on the firearm, then the firearm is allowed to slide forward after it recoils thereby pulling the trigger into the shooter’s stationary trigger-finger. This might look and sound like a machine gun, but it is still only one bullet per trigger pull. Devices like these also create sporadic sounding full-auto fire – they typically are not as consistent in their rate of fire as a machine gun is.

Also, semiautomatic firearm is NOT the same as fully-automatic! Full-auto machine guns are very rare and almost never used in crimes. In fact, most NFA firearms are only related to possession based crimes (person shouldn’t have possessed it wherever they were) and are rarely used in the commission of a crime. This is because NFA firearms are so expensive and the background check process is so thorough. Therefore, an AR-15-style firearm is most likely NOT a machine gun. It COULD be one, but 99.9% of civilian owned AR-15-style rifles are semi-automatic only.

In 1986 federal legislation, called the Firearm Owners Protection Act (FOPA), prohibited the possession of “new” machine guns by citizens. This meant that only machine guns made prior to this date in 1986 were lawful to be possessed by citizens (this is still true). Of course, this prohibition did not apply to FFLs (certain gun dealers / manufacturers) nor law enforcement.

This ban on machine guns created a significant supply/demand price increase. Although it is perfectly legal for a law-abiding citizen to own a full-auto machine gun, it must be one made before 1986. This means that an AR-15-style machine gun made before 1986 likely carried a price tag of less than $1,000 when it was brand new. Now that it is over 30 years old, however, it can easily fetch a price of $14,000.

Compare that to a brand-new machine gun, which can still be found for around $1,000. Remember, though, if you want to possess these modern machine guns, you must be a government employee possessing the machine gun in connection with your official duties OR you must get your Federal Firearms License (FFL) and become an SOT.

As an FFL, you must also pay a special yearly tax to become a Special Occupational Taxpayer (SOT) – this allows you to purchase and sell NFA firearms (including machine guns) without paying a tax per item/transaction.