In another forum, someone has stated he was told by the BATFE that they are holding all WA state Form 1 approvals for SBRs while they seek clarification about the "manufacturing" language in the law.
Meanwhile we have reports here that Form 1's have been received already. Conflicted versions, it would appear.
The post is on AR15 in the "hometown" section. Don't know if I'm allowed to put up a link to another forum, but here it is http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_8_15/5...E_receives_further_clearification.html&page=1 The OP of the thread had called in to check status and was told by Dana Pickles, all WA state F1's for SBRs were on hold for clarification of WA state law. This happened after several were approved already.
Keep reading on that thread... the ATF approved the OPs F1 AFTER declaring they were on hold. Doesn't sound like they were on hold for very long...
Way ahead of all that. I had my stuff engraved in May/June and all my parts were acquired in that time as well. Next step is wait for work day to end, print my form, place barrel on receiver, and smile.
I have decided not to. If the WA firearms division is giving the green light to the ATF to approve form 1s that's good enough for me. Every definition of manufacture I could find in WA RCWs were defined with the intent to sale which I'm definitely not doing. So I'm okay being in the potential 'grey area' as pointed out by lawyers that looked at the law as worded, what you do is up to you.
Is your decision based solely on the ATF definition of the word "manufacture"? Honestly, if the ATF approved forms after getting clarification from the state, one would ASSume that you are good to go, especially since there was no stipulation to the release/approval.
The hold then unhold of form 1 approvals in less than 24hrs is kind of what tipped me this way. Also I see just as much legal chicken and egg problem with doing the 5320.20 form since you are basically saying officially to the atf (perfect proof for an evil prosecutor ) 'I have an sbr already and want to move it to another state' when you fill one of those out, which defeats the whole assembling it out of state objective in the first place in my mind. Also like I said, after searching through WA RCWs for 'manufacture, manufacturing, etc' they all pretty much related to the business of selling. Which I'm definitely not doing.
As an Oregonian I don't have a dog in this hunt, but I think it's worth pointing out that as non-licensed individuals we're not "manufacturing" SBR's with Form 1's, we're "making" them. There is a legal difference in the ATF definition. FWIW....
And "making" a SBR just involves putting a short upper on the registered lower. You could build SBR registered lowers all day long and your not actually "making" anything. Not until you put that short upper on it. On a side note, it's looking like efiled F1s are get ringing approved in about 3 weeks currently, and paper F1/F4s are getting approved in about 4mos currently. What an improvement the ATF has managed to make in turn around times in a relatively short amount of time.
That's what I hear. I'll be submitting a couple more Form 1's next week, my first time using the E-Form system
