Are my pistol barrels too long?

[yorke-1]

I was talking to the owner of a local gun shop about a few SPs that I have, and he told me that the barrel lengths were too long. He said that I needed to have them classified as AOW (any other weapons) in order to be legal, and that I cannot legally rebarrel a handgun with a barrel over 12" without registering it with the ATF as an AOW. He stated that the ATF defines a handgun as having a barrel of not more than 12". Have any of you ever encountered this?

I asked him about all the long barreled pistols that left the factory that way (TC, XP, Striker, MOA, etc). He just said that they are not legally pistols and are subject to a $5 AOW tax at the time of transfer.

Andrew

 

[Ernie]

Have I read the law myself? No.
Everything I know, says your dealer is mistaken.

 

[7STDUBBERU]

your dealer is mistaken.

+1

He has no idea

 

[yorke-1]

I did some digging and here is the information that I pulled from the ATF website:

The NFA further defines the term "any other weapon" (AOW) in 26 U.S.C. § 5845(e) as:

… any weapon or device capable of being concealed on the person from which a shot can be discharged through the energy of an explosive, a pistol or revolver having a barrel with a smooth bore designed or redesigned to fire a fixed shotgun shell, weapons with combination shotgun and rifle barrels 12 inches or more, less than 18 inches in length, from which only a single discharge can be made from either barrel without manual reloading, and shall include any such weapon which may be readily restored to fire. Such term shall not include a pistol or revolver having a rifled bore, or rifled bores, or weapons designed, made, or intended to be fired from the shoulder and not capable of firing fixed ammunition.
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To me, this says that as long as it has a rifled bore it's not an AOW. I just hate digging through legal speak! I think I just lost 2 years off my life after trying to wade through all of this stuff.

Andrew
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