13 thoughts on “Own a Gatling Gun, no NFA rules”

  2. Plus, an orignal Gatling Gun is old enough to not be a firearm by law, no? At any rate, I had been given to understand that the hand-cranked gatling gun wouldn’t qualify as a machine gun, as each detent changed on the crank counts as one trigger pull. you have to take an action to move the crank and only one bullet is fired per action taken. IANAL, much less one specializing in NFA. YMMV and seek competent representation, etc.

  3. Uncle is correct that a hand cranked gatling gun isn’t an NFA firearm, and if it’s made prior to 1898, it’s not a firearm under federal law either.

  5. The fun question, is the hand-cranked gatling gun legal in NJ, CA, etc?

    It would appear to be legal in NJ (cursory reading of their AWB) as long as you didn’t attach a large magazine…

  6. Interesting thought:

    Replica of a hand cranked Gatling gun, with a crank. You can remove the crank and attach a cordless drill to it to fire at a high rate of speed. A drill attached to a crank gatling gun is a machinegun under the NFA because it fires more than one cartridge with a single function of the trigger (in this case a cordless drill trigger). Now, does this mean if you have a hand cranked Gatling gun, you can’t have a cordless drill that would fit the crank shaft?

  7. Cabelas has a Gatling kit for around 300 bucks. It takes 2- 10/22 ruger semis’ and makes them into a fully firing Gatling gun. Comes with all the machined parts to make one. Add the 100 round drum to each one, and have some fun!

  9. Under some of the precendent the BATFE has been trying to promulgate; yeah. Though thye’d probably nail you for having something “readily convertible” to an NFA weapon.

    Which just goes to show how silly that doctrine is.

  10. I think “accelerators” are illegal in NJ and CA, meaning you can’t attach a crank to a semi-auto rifle.

    But I’m not sure if a true gatling, completely human-powered, is illegal or not.

    It might be cheaper to make a replica Puckle Gun, except the cylinder could be replaced with “feed strips”.

  11. Interesting. If you chrony a rubber band, it moves at about 110 feet per second, or about 75 miles per hour. Of course, the ballistic coefficient sucks :)

  12. I’m quite sure the state courts of NJ will find it to be a machinegun within the meaning of the act anyway. This is the state that manages to find that a 30-day deadline doesn’t mean the cops have to issue within 30 days after all.

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