BATF NFA Hand Book Concerning M16 parts Used in an AR15.

[Semiauto]

This subject has been debated back and forth for a long time. You have some people saying it's legal to use M16 bolt carriers in an AR15 while other aruged it's not. Then we saw in the case of David Olofson that the BATF said it was illegal. Well here is a page out of the BATF's NFA Hand Book.

[gturner140]

Don't hate me here guys, but that is pretty standard stuff from BATF, common to all semi conversions. The are merely discouraging a dangerous condition. Many ClassIII parts fall under restriction or recommendations like the above concerning "gunsmithing." At least they are not flat out outlawing all the parts or requiring all those parts to be registered as auto-sears and the like. There is some wiggle room here. Not sure what else we could expect from BATF.

[Spoon]

A M16 bolt would never cause a ar15 to fire full-auto. Colt 6920, Noveske, BCM, CMMG all semi-auto come with M16 bolts.



As for the David ATF case...I also remember reading that he knew it fired that way and I think he also claimed to know how to convert them. Reading through it you'll see the ATF agent could only get the Oly Arms SGW, which Oly knew at the time could malfunction, to fire auto by switching to soft primers.

This was quoted from someone at the trial (can be found here BATF Atrocity - Political Wrinkles)
Mr.Savage
" said it was because it contained the M-16 trigger parts but what they refused to show the judge was that SGW Olympic Arms prior to 1986 made all AR-15 semi-automatic rifles with M-16 trigger parts and that the government in 1986 recognized that there was a possibility of a malfunctioning occurring with certain ammunition, depending on the wear of the gun, fouling and that the guns could go full auto without the user knowing it and they posed a safety hazard and that the ATF mandated Olympic Arms to recall all of these guns and modify the trigger component so that this malfunction couldn't happen. We asked the government to produce this evidence so that the judge and the jury could see it. Mr. Olofson's attorneys asked for it and the ATF chief counsels' office responded to the US attorneys' office and said that it contained tax information, therefore, it would be against the law for the judge to even view the document and that His Honor would have to take the ATF chief counsels' office at their word that it contained on exculpatory information."

[Semiauto]

Originally Posted by Spoon

A M16 bolt would never cause a ar15 to fire full-auto. Colt 6920, Noveske, BCM, CMMG all semi-auto come with M16 bolts.

Yes sir, it's not a question about full auto bolt carriers causing a semi-auto to go full auto. It's a question about using machine gun parts in a civilian rifle. The BATF stated in the Olofson case that once a machine gun part, always a machine gun part. I honestly don't see the harm in using M16 BCGs but it's not worth the risk.

As for those other companies issuing a civilian rifle with machine gun parts, you just better hope their records doesn't burn to the ground. During the Olofson case Olympia Arms at one time installed machine gun parts in their AR15s as well but their records was destroyed during a fire thus making it impossible for David to prove he did not install those parts in his case. They latter found some kind of letter from Olympia talking about the M16 BCGs but the judge refused to see it.

I don't even ask about M16 parts either. I remember reading David's emails where he contacted a guy about buying M16 parts. I asked David personally about it and he told me it was some type of habit being ex-military and that he was really looking for AR15 parts.