M2 parts - possessing and selling?

A friend of mine has the M2 hammer as well as disconnector, disconnector spring and plunger -- no other M2 parts. Legal/illegal to own and/or sell?

TIA!

RtL

As long as he doesn't have all of the key parts, he's ok according to the BATFE regs. The key parts are defined as the parts that are used exclusively in the full auto. In other words, if it was used in the production and rebuilds of the M1 carbine, it is ok plus you can have most but not ALL of the parts for the M2. You will get a lot of varying opinions on this, but if you read the regs, it is very specific.

Furthermore you can get into trouble over time. For instance you sell a few parts and later you sell the remainder of the parts. Because the statue of limitations if 5 years, they can get you for possession/sale of a complete machine gun, during that 5 year stretch.

I know a couple of dealers that bit the dust over a period of time.

Another way they can get you is to tell you all they need is one part to complete the M2. You sell them that one part, and you have now made an illegal transfer of a machine gun and go to jail without passing go.


I stay away from all that stuff, want nothing to do with it.

I have to agree with Bill. If the part wasn't used in the M1 and you don't have a registered M2, why have the parts?

It came with a trigger housing with no other parts (besides the correct M1 parts, of course). No selector or anything else.

What the other people say is probably correct however you, and I assume your friend, are in Wash. state. There is a state law that prohibits the possession of a single part that is designed for strictly full auto fire. That would include the disconnecter.

Appreciate all the feedback - thanks!

The disconnector, spring and plunger are three of the parts not necessary for an M1 and are part of the M2 set. The hammer can be used in both but is also one of the seven parts for conversion. Though the slide, sear and trigger housing are needed, they are not part of the conversion and are common replacement parts.

Selling one part is not a problem, no matter what someone tells you. I don't know about the dealers you are referring to, but I knew one who got in trouble for selling 4 or 5 parts, then telling the buyer to "come back later" to get the rest. Not four or five years, more like five minutes. Of course, he was already in violation of the law by having those parts, no matter how he sold them, but he thought that by not selling them all at once he would get away with it. He didn't; the buyer was a BATFE agent.

In another case, a young man bought several parts from one dealer (who was careful not to have all the parts), then was directed to another dealer for the rest. He met another man who was also interested in auto weapons, and the young man assembled the carbine at his new friend's apartment. Then they went to the friend's uncle's farm to shoot it. The "uncle", I need not say, was Uncle Sam. Oooops!

It was all on video tape, of course. The young man pleaded guilty and escaped with a light fine, but he can never again own any kind of a gun.

'Taint worth it, folks.

Jim

One of the "Set up" tactics is to purchase the parts over a period of time. Yes, they can take up to 5 years, as long as everything came from the same seller. That is why some of the dealers that walk on a razors edge never handle one certain part. As long as they never have it, they could never complete a sale and get nailed.

A dealer from the Detriot Area was one of the first to take the "long term fall".

Your story sounds like one I know occurred in Maryland.