Guns that made it through the manufacturing process
without having numbers on them are nothing like guns that have, and then had them removed.
Many times tool room samples of gun parts are not numbered and somewhere along the line accountability for the items gets lost.
Without some traceability, there is no way to prove what is stolen and what isn't...
Those guns in collector hands that have no numbers are usually prominent pieces of their collection and were acquired with a legal traceable paper trail that relieves them of accountability... This is a far cry from having a gun that has had the numbers removed to prevent traceability.
To this day, an ordinary citizen can legally fabricate any type of otherwise legal weapon on their own, for their own use, and no serial numbers have to be applied to it... This is the reason there are so many AR15 80% finished castings sold in this country. It isn't considered a firearm by ATF until it is much more than 80% finished...
If a current owner of a firearm manufacturer chose to personally build themselves an unserial numbered Luger (The Krause Lugers for example) that was for their own use in a personal collection, this is perfectly legal. Weapons made in this fashion can not be made with the pre-existing intent to sell. But I am sure that does not preclude the sale of such a personal firearm at some later time...
I think the ATF would monitor closely any manufacturer that made more than just a couple of these 'personal' firearms, and would revoke the FFL of anyone who practiced this with regularity...
I know several folks who have successfully built such rifles for their own use legally... This ability to manufacture for personal use does not necessarily extend to areas where a particular type of firearm has been banned such as California.
If you are interested in building your own firearms, the AR15 is an excellent choice... Visit www.ar15.com and check out the build-it-yourself forum...
best,
John Sabato
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