Quote:
Originally Posted by Evil Tim
Nope, Yugo SKS is specifically banned as a destructive device, the ones with detachable magazines get dinged as "assault weapons." I mean nevermind that this ruling would presumably ban every weapon with a NATO 22mm flash hider. |
Hadn't seen that specific ban before, but that is bizarre. The Cali assault weapons ban reads "A semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine and any one of the following: 1) a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon; 2) a thumbhole stock; 3) a folding or telescoping stock; 4) a grenade or flare launcher; 5) a flash suppressor; or 6) a forward pistol grip", so if a rifle with a grenade launcher is illegal, why list it as a feature that would turn a detachable magazine rifle into an AW? And as you say, there are a large number of other weapons that take the NATO standard 22mm grenades that are not affected. I assume the reason that they picked on this one is because it is actually called a grenade launcher, as opposed to other weapons where part of the barrel just so happens to be 22mm wide.
Looking into the wording of that ban it kind of reads like they banned it because they misunderstood what it was. It reads "The factory brochure claims that the grenade launcher launches a 22 mm (approximately .80 caliber) grenade." To me this reads as if they banned it based on the "the barrel or barrels of which have a bore of more than one-half inch in diameter" part of the DD definition. This is not the case with this gun though, as the 22mm is the external rather than internal diameter.
Also, and this is a more general US gun law question, can a state deem something to be a destructive device? Isn't this defined by the NFA and overseen by the BATF, not the California DOJ? Granted, they could still ban the firearm by name but that isn't what they did in this case.
Either way, looking into it you can still legally have a Yugo SKS in CA, you just need to either remove the grenade launcher itself, or make it incapable of a grenade sliding over it by doing something like welding on a sleeve, or even just laying down a line of weld.