what are the legalities of silencers on air rifles?
Me and a couple of friends are having an argument maybe you can clear it up for me. Is there anything in the federal laws for the USA that says you cannot have a silencer on an air rifle? some of the stuff i do with my air rifle is probably not the smartest thing to do anyhow just wondering if the shroud is one more thing they could use against me.
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I would call him back and ask if he will put that in righting if he does that would be great, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on him sticking his neck out on the subject that is really the bad thing a bought the ATF they will tell you one thing and then deny it later.
I spoke to ATF in Sacramento, CA, Yesterday. The firearms specialist stated, that they do not care about air gun shrouds. If it is built for an air rifle and does not thread onto a rifle barrel, it is not regulated and is legal.
Now if you could get that in writing on BATF letterhead….
I talked with an ATF agent a few yrs ago about the silencer thing. He was a neighbor at the time.
He laughed and said they were much more concerned about the meth lab guys
with duck taped liter pop bottles on their AK-47 then an airgun hobbiest.
He also added very seriously, just don’t commit a crime or we will throw
the book at you !!!!
Lonegun i been at work, or sitting at home drinkin beer shooting the neightbors cats.
hey stalker you dickhead, in the state of new mexico the definition of a firearm is anything that launches a projectile by ANY means of propulsion, your talon is a firearm, your daisy is a firearm, your slingshot is a firearm, but under federal law air rifle are not regulated by batfe, but the silencer itself is by legal definition a firearm, it requires special license to manufacture, must be serial numbered, and must be licensed, where the hell you been at? me and red been wearing our talons out
I went the legal route, applied with BATF and paid fof the “tax stamp”. It took a couple of months to get it back, but then that’s it, no more to pay. It can be even transferred to an heir without additional fee, not that I’m worried about that. I figured $200 was insurance… if they confiscated even one of my rifles, I’d be out more than that. It is legal in Tennessee to own a registered silencer, some states don’t allow it, so there you’re out of luck. I live out in the county, so I can shoot in my yard without problems. I have room for a 75 yard range, and my neighbors never hear a thing.
You do have a point you would get off but until you did you would sit in jail for at least a couple of weeks depending on how they arrest you the amount of money it would cost you would be at least $20,000.00.
I talked to air force a couple of weeks ago and asked them if they where planning on coming out with a moderator and they told me no because it is the discretion of the ATF agent to prosecute criminal charges when it come to the moderator/suppressor issue each baffle is a controlled item and yes I do relies a lot of companies have integrated moderators in them thank god ATF hasn’t realized it YET
there is no way for it to mount on a firearm since the inside of the tube is way too large to even fit one of my rifle barrels and there is no way duct tape is oging to hold it to the rifle so hell dont guess there is much i need to worry about.
it dosnt have to have baffles to be a silencer it just has to lower a gunshot 1 db and be able to mount on a firearm, as basic as it gets
but federal law supercedes state law (or its supposed to anyway) so unless the cop just wanted to be a prick which isnt uncommon its likely that nothing would be said. and if it did go to court i could just look at the pages of airguns sold leagally that already have moderators on them from the factory and likely walk on everything i would think.
it gets even wierder because diferent states have different laws regarding what is a firearm
for the time being mine is just a hollow tube that slides into my frame and is held inplace with the set screw for the endcap. i dont see how it could possibly be modded to fit a firearm. also ATF shouldnt even get involved with a moderator on an airgun because according to everything i have found on the subject an airgun is not considered a firearm therefore it isnt regulated by the ATF. from the description i have found of what they consider a firearm is any weapon that uses explosives to propel a projectile. hence no explosion none of thier business. Right?
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Maybe you could offer copies of the tapes in the For Sale section! LOL