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by 1-more 1042 days ago
I've been getting ads on social media to buy silencers on Temu. Ok not silencers, but adapters where one end has the female thread of a soda bottle on it, and the other has the female thread to match the external thread available on a Ruger 10/22. While silencers are federally legal in the U.S., they are illegal in many states and subject to a federal transfer tax. I could see this being a problem for Temu, and I could also see this never being any kind of problem for Temu.

There may be settled case law that says these aren't silencers legally, idk. The whole discipline is hilariously talmudic and full of the heap problem (is a billet of metal a gun? What about with one hole in it? Two holes and a chamfer here and a routed channel there? etc.)

2 comments

Suppressors are only Federally legal with a tax stamp, typically acquired with a “Form 1” self manufacture or a Form 4” transfer (purchase) along with a $200 tax for the stamp, per item.

The seller would need special ATF licensure and follow an onerous process to sell what is typically considered safety equipment in Europe, ironically. This involves submitting fingerprints, passport photos, and a lengthy (9+ month) approval process on the part of the ATF.

For the self-manufacture, this has been de-factor outlawed by the current regime with DIY kits being arbitrarily reclassified as suppressors themselves. Most if not all Form 1 builds are outright denied.

So, in short, Temu cannot sell these at all. Of course they also occasionally sell selector switches to concert Glock handguns to fully automatic. This is even more comically illegal than a suppressor workaround.

right, I forgot to mention that manufacture also requires a tax stamp which is only available to registered manufacturers.

And yeah the Glock switch thing is absolutely wild. Sure, calling a shoelace a machine gun[0] stretches philosophy a fair bit. But the widespread availability of a bit of hardware that can only add select fire to a handgun tells me that enforcement is only a problem for those willing to adhere to the rules at all.

0: https://i.imgur.com/FCbDv.jpg

Silencer or a “WIX fuel filter (wink, wink)”?