Do You Have To Register A Homemade Gun

serial number on homemade firearm

Edifice your own AR-15Â from an eighty% lower has go a popular hobby. Of form, there are many other firearms you tin can build from scratch likewise: everything from a 1911 to a ten/22.

Firearm manufacturing is a highly regulated industry, and everyone wants to stay within the bounds of the law. So, what is, and is non, legal when making your own gun?

In this article, I am addressing one specific question: Do yous have to engrave a serial number on your completed firearm?

Read This First

Earlier I go whatsoever further: I am not a lawyer and have noÂ specialized knowledge of the police beyond whatÂ anyone else tin can research. Nothing in this article should be considered legal advice. To put it in perspective, I'1000 just a guy with a keyboard – but then, so is that guy on Reddit or Facebook handing out communication. Carefully source your own data.

None of the information in this commodity applies to state or local laws. It applies simply to the federal laws of the The states. Additionally, this information applies only to not-NFA items. All NFA items require serial numbers and other markings.

Laws change. At some point in the future, the laws regarding homemade firearms may modify and render this data obsolete. Do your ain homework and err on the side of caution.

Am I required to apply a serial number to a gun I manufacture?

Short Answer: No

Long Answer: Â My research indicates at that place is no federal police or regulation that requires a person to mark his or her personally manufactured firearm with a serial number or other information. I had this confirmed by the Firearms Manufacture Programs Branch of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE).

Building an AR from an 80 lower

Additional Information

Federal law does non prohibit an individual from making a fully functional firearm for his or her ain use. Further, youÂ practice notÂ need a federal firearms license (FFL) to industry the gun. Refer toÂ xviii UsC. 922 (firearms crimes) and 18 U.Due south.C. 923 (firearms licensing)Â in public law. The BATFEÂ acknowledges this here.

Still, you cannot make the gun with the intent to sell or otherwise transfer the gun to another. This prohibition includes making a gun as a souvenir for an firsthand family unit member. However, edifice a gun for yourself that you later decide to sell or transfer is permissible. I would strongly urge caution, equally the practise of making a gun for another is prohibited without a license. It would be up to yous to prove that you made it for yourself and then later decided to sell or give information technology away.

I've never been able to find whatsoever reference in federal constabulary to a serial number or other manufacturing marks being required on a personally made firearm. When I contacted the BATFE virtually this in December of 2016, Firearms Enforcement Specialist L. Babbie of the Firearms Industry Programs Co-operative in Washington DC stated:

Additionally, although markings are non required on firearms manufactured for personal use (excluding NFA firearms), owners are recommended to conspicuously place or engrave a serial number and/ or other marks of identification to help in investigation or recovery past Land or local law enforcement officials in the event of a theft or loss of the privately owned firearm. (emphasis added)

I have never found whatsoever credible information that contradicts Specialist Babbie's argument. Continue in mind this is all referring to federal police – non state law. Individual states may laissez passer laws that require serial numbers on home made firearms.

personally built firearm markings

What about a gun I make for myself and later transfer?

Short Reply: No

Long Reply: My enquiry indicates there is no federal law that requires a personally made firearm that was manufactured for personal useÂ to take a serial number of other marking before you sell or transfer it to another person. However, the BATFE muddies the water on this ane because of the way they phrase certain things, and that people do not read the underlying CFR referenced past the agency.

However, when directly questioned almost the requirement, BATFE has stated that no serial number is required in this specific case. I advise reading the additional information below.

Additional Data

This answer is disputed past some gun owners, though it seems articulate to me.

Federal police force does non prohibit the transfer of a homemade firearm to another person and then long as the gun was non made with the intent of transferring it to another person. In other words, when y'all fabricated the gun, if information technology was your intention to keep and use it yourself and so it is legal to afterward sell, gift or trade the gun to another person and non be in violation of the manufacturer licensing requirements in federal constabulary.

This data was also confirmed by Specialist Babbie:

A person who previously made a firearm for personal employ is non prohibited by law from selling such firearm.Â Such seller needs to ensure that he/she is actually selling a firearm that was previously fabricated for personal employ and that he/she is not engaged in the business of manufacturing without a Federal firearms license (FFL).

The gun may be transferred in any of the normal ways including contiguous sales inside a state (where not precluded past local law), through an FFL or by passing of the weapons to an heir.

Notwithstanding, Specialist Babbie was careful to annotation:

Making a firearm to gift to someone is not making a firearm for personal use.

In other words, you cannot brand your son a hunting rifle and give it to him for Christmas unless you hold an FFL.

So, since it is obvious that transferring a personally made firearm is legal, let's address the question of what, if whatever, marking requirements are there on a gun being transferred. This is where the BATFE causes confusion.

I take been unable to find any public police or CFR that requires a series number or other marking on a personally made and owned firearm that is later transferred. None.

However, the BATFE makes the argument here that:

Receivers that meet the definition of a â€œfirearmâ€ must have markings, including a serial number. See 27 CFR Â§ 478.92 (Firearm manufacturers marking requirements).

Unfortunately, the BATFE does not link to the regulation for people to review. I suspect that few people take the timeÂ to look upÂ 27 CFR Â§ 478.92. But I have and it can be read here.

The regulation states quite clearly:

You, as a licensed manufacturer or licensed importer of firearms, must legibly place each firearm manufactured or imported as follows…

As someone who is not an FFL holder who is making a gun at home and for your own personal use, this CFR simply does not seem to apply.

I have seen an image of part of a letter that is presumably from the BATFE on this subject area that further confuses the subject. In the alphabetic character signed by Sterling Nixon, Master, Firearms Applied science Branch, Nixon makes the statement:

…a nonlicensee may manufacture a semiautomatic rifle for his or her ain personal use…Notwithstanding, if the firearm is transferred to another political party at some point in the hereafter, the firearm must be marked in accordance with the provisions ready along in 27 CFRÂ Â§ 478.92 (formerly 178.92).

Since the words "must be marked" appear, people former assume that means the personally made and used firearm that is at present existence transferred must be marked. However, the full statement includes "must exist marked in accordance with…27Â CFRÂ Â§ 478.92", which clearly only applies to FFL holders. In other words, as I understand it, not placing markings on the gun would not take yous out of complianceÂ with 27 CFRÂ Â§ 478.92, so long as you did not otherwise fall under the requirements of the CFR.

I confirmed this through a series of due east-mails with Specialist Babbie when I asked this question:

For clarification, if I (non a licensed manufacturer or importer) brand a firearm for personal utilise and at some later date I decide to sell it, am I required to take it marked with any information? If and so, what information would be required?

Specialist Babbie provided this clear and unambiguous response:

Firearms markings are only required by those who are licensed importers, licensed manufacturers, and those who brand an NFA firearm for personal utilize. Â Those marks would be made at the fourth dimension important, manufacture, or when an NFA firearm was made for personal utilize.Â Under Federal law, no markings would be required in your circumstance. (accent added)

And then, with the following information:

no police force I've been able to detect or seen cited requiring a series number or other marking;
no CFR I've been able to detect or seen cited requiring a series number or other marking; and
a BATFE Firearms Enforcement Specialist saying no series number or other marking is required

it seems fairly articulate that no serial number or other marking is required on a firearm that you personally made for your own use that you lot after decide to transfer.

Once more, I urge extreme caution. The presumption in law is that you need an FFL to manufacture firearms for sale to others. It would appear that you demand to be able to bear witness that the personally made gun was for you lot and used past y'all and not intended for transfer to another person.

Should I apply a serial number to my gun anyway?

Short Answer: Yeah

Long Answer

There are 2 adept reasons why you should consider marking your gun in accordance with 27 CFRÂ Â§ 478.92 even though it is not required. Start, information technology avoids whatsoever defoliation nearly the application ofÂ 27 CFRÂ Â§ 478.92. Consider this a CYA, though I don't call up it to exist a strong enough Â reason for me. I have no intention of ever selling, trading or otherwise transferring whatever gun that I may brand to someone else.

The second reason, however, is much more than important to me. Marking your firearm with a serial number and other information will allow it to be identified as a stolen firearm if information technology is e'er taken from you. Firearm thefts happen, and a serial number allows local police enforcement to enter the weapon into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC).

When an officer comes across some gang banger with your gun, that series number volition come back as stolen. The thug in possession will go for a felony and the officers might be able to track back and notice out who broke into your home. Cops getting criminals – especially violent ones – off the street is something I fully support. A series number on your gun can help that happen should it ever be stolen.