A couple of weeks ago, Connecticut reader Matt told the story of his attempts to build or acquire a legal short barrel rifle. Here’s the latest:
My F1 was denied this week because “The making and/or possession of this firearm would be in violation of State or local law”. I was able to talk to the examiner that denied the F1 and he said that Connecticut now requires that the “assault weapon” cert for the firearm be included because I am making a firearm with the F1. The cert will need to say exactly what the firearm made by the F1 says . . .
Motherf****r! I guess the rumors really were true; someone, somewhere in the state complained to someone.
A little background on assault weapon certificates: no AW certs are required for pre-bans under Connecticut law as they are not considered assault weapons. Pre-bans transfer ‘freely’ without the AW transfer restrictions; that is I can sell or otherwise transfer my pre-ban at anytime, I don’t have to wait to die to transfer it like a postban registered AW. Any sale/transfer still requires the CT sales paperwork and a background check done by the state. Essentially getting an AW cert will tie that firearm to you indefinitely and prevent it’s transfer instate. That’s the quick and dirty of AW certs.
I’m not sure where to go with this; I really do not want to get an AW cert for something that isn’t an AW. I also don’t want to get an AW cert for something that was being run through the approval process for years up to this point without one (including the couple of years since PA 13-3 was passed).
I’m not an expert on our fustercluck of gun laws, but none of this seems correct; as in no legal basis. I am not making a firearm as far as the state is concerned, according to my reading of the law. Nothing they care about or track is changing. It’s still a pre-ban firearm to them under the law. What really doesn’t make sense is if I were making an AW from a 80% lower today, I wouldn’t be able to get an AW cert for it now and it would be illegal. So why is making a pre-ban an SBR different when I’m not really making anything (in the manufacturing sense)? Why am I magically able to get a certificate for a pre-ban after the fact but would not be able to for any other firearm?
I can’t help but think this is a backdoor way to register more AWs, gather more info for the state, pad the numbers, and — without a doubt — it’s an attempt to frustrate anyone’s progress by taking advantage of convenient terminology.
It seems other people are experiencing this problem as reported in a couple of threads on CTGuntalk.com. They all seems to be able to get AW certs and re-file and get approved pretty quickly.
We’ll see what my lawyer says, but it seems like I’ve got only one option — get a damn AW certificate for yet another firearm the state already knows I possess.