AMNESTIES FOR UNREGISTERED NFA WEAPONS
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In every case, the part(s) are installed into a semi-automatic gun, and without any alteration to the semi-auto gun’s receiver, the new part(s) will allow the gun to fire as a machine gun. As a general rule a sear conversion is less desirable than an original gun, or a registered receiver conversion. This is because if the registered part breaks or wears out it cannot be replaced, only repaired, if possible. BATF considers replacing it with a new part to be the new manufacture of a machine gun, and a civilian could not own it, as it would have been made after the 1986 ban. This wear/breakage thing is also true of the receiver on a gun where that is the registered part, but in general the receiver is less subject to wear or breakage than a small part, like a sear. Being larger, a receiver may also be easier to repair. The sear conversion will most likely not be just like the factory machine gun version; it will be working in the semi-auto version of the gun. A registered receiver conversion can (and should, but isn’t always) be mechanically identical to the original full auto version of the gun, and factory spare parts may be used. Some sear conversions require altered parts, in addition to the registered sear.