by jshuberg on Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:17 am
The NDS-1948 receiver he was in possession of is the receiver for an Uzi. NoDak doesn't sell complete firearms, just receivers in various states of completion for people to use in builds. I'm familiar with their AR lowers and uppers that people use in retro builds.
Presumably, it was a virgin receiver that he completed using a kit or other separately purchased Uzi parts. BATFE has a mishmash of what their technical group considers a machine gun, which doesn't necessarily have to make a whole lot of sense. For example, the presence of a hole in an AR15 where the auto sear pin would be installed is considered to make it a machine gun, absent any other parts, and even if the rear of the fire control pocket isn't milled out and an auto sear simply would fit in the gun, a hole in the receiver makes it a machine gun. Even if it's actually only capable of firing one round per trigger press.
It's quite possible that what happened here is that the builder of the Uzi made a mistake somewhere. That he ran afoul of BATFE's spider web of what constitutes what, and innocently found himself in possession of a machine gun, despite the fact that it may have only been capable of firing one round per press of the trigger. It could have been as innocent of one wrong part, or one wrong hole, etc.
It's also possible that he did in fact build a fully automatic Uzi, but knowing that NoDak sells receivers for people to then build into fully functional firearms, it's not beyond reason that this guy could have simply made a mistake in his build. I suggest we reserve judgement until we discover what kind of "machine gun" the guy had. Was it a semi-auto with a technical mistake, or was it genuinely a full-auto?
Interestingly, and I don't know when it happened, NoDak is no longer selling the NDS-1948, although there are some up on gunbroker and other places for sale in various states of completion. This will be interesting to follow. This doesn't happen very often, let alone in MN.
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