The Nassau County District Attorney on Long Island in New York would disagree with much of Foxtrot's post. Her interpretation and application of the law is draconian. She recently sent the State Police to raid several local gun stores and arrest the owners after an undercover operation. She had issue with the gunstores making non-compliant guns compliant and then selling them. Her take on this is that they were not compliant from the factory so they never could be converted to compliant. The news also aired hidden video from one of the buys where the owner explained to the undercover that the stock on an M4 type rifle could be unpinned but that it is very illegal. It's amazing to me that the anti-gun liberals of long island and NYC are able to hold the rest of the state hostage to their very unliberated views on firearms.
A very simplistic view of unpinning and re-pinning the stock is that once you unpin it in NYS you've already commited a crime. If you unpin it in PA and replace the stock and re-pin and then bring it back to NY compliant, what can they do?
Strange, because thats the office I got my information from. I agree they are a little draconian in their view but not to the extent they are so stupid as to go after crimes that do not exist and invent prosecution simply for the sake of doing so. No, you have not commited a crime once you unpin it and remove it
IF you are in the process of doing maintenance or replacement and then make the new changes or parts compliant and the changes not "eaisly removable". The intent is what makes it a crime. If you unpin it intending to leave it unpinned or intending to change it in such a way so it can become "eaisly" illegal, then the intent is to make the weapon illegal either by providing a method intended to circumvent the law or which violates the law.
The cases your citing are for gun stores where there was an intentional effort to circumvent or violate the law. The non-compliant/illegal thing you are referencing are cases where the weapons were made to appear compliant but the changes made were eaisly reversed, in other words they made them easily reversable on purpose intending to actually sell non-compliant weapons. Their intent and purpose was expressed in the manner in which they made the changes eaisly reversable. Then there is the matter that these were businesses for which their expressed purpose is to sell/provide firearms and they did sell/provide them, so their motive (financial) and intent was clear that they were trying to sell/provide non-compliant weapons, the physical manifestation of their act was actually selling/providing the weapon knowing they could eaisly be made illegal so the opportunity was also there because obviously they had buyers for those weapons, and obvously they had access by making the eaisly removable changes so they could intentionally sell a non-compliant weapon. Its a big difference between those cases and what this poster expresses in his question.
In this thread were dealing with an individual (not a business or manufacturer) which seeks to maintain or upgrade or modify their own personal property for their specific use and is not for selling/providing/supply to the public (hopefully) and is specifically seeking to maintain the legality of the weapon with the changes, there is no intent here at circumventing or violating the law and in fact the intent, based upon the posters words, is to maintain legality.
Your citing cases that have no bearing on the matter at hand in the thread because there is no intent at illegal acts displayed here by, and based upon, word of the poster, in fact he specifically expresses a willingness and intent to comply with the law for his changes where he says "...as long as I put a locking pin in place keeping it from telescoping" and that is legal as long as its not eaisly reversed to make the stock telescoping. Eaisly reversed is kinda broad wording I agree, but generally means - unable to remove or change without resorting to specialized or non-commonly available tools or methods and are physically permanent in nature, intent, form, and function, for the method applied. Had those gun stores done that, done the legal thing and not make it eaisly removable, you would not be citing those cases here because they would not exist because the DA would have done nothing because there would have been no crime.
There is a lot more to it then just a simple wording of a narrow portion of the law to determine legality. If for example, the poster puts the new stock on and does not pin the stock intending to, and does, go to the range first and test fire it, then yes, its illegal because he clearly had the intent to use the weapon in an illegal condition. However, if he changes the stock and then pins it back to a true legal condition (reference the need to make the changes not eaisly removable) in his own home and then goes to the range to test fire it then there is no illegal act or offense comitted. Its no different from having the weapon repaired if the old stock was somehow broken and a new legal stock being put back on for that repair. If a simple reading of a narrow portion of the law were applied it would mean that ALL weapons of this type, period, would not be permitted in the state at all because they all begin their life at the factory in a "non-legal" condition for that state during manufactur but before finalized for compliancy, and the poster would not have a 15-22 to begin with.
Technically, yes, by letter of the law specifically dealing with the definitions to allow an illegal condition for the weapon, but there is more to it then just a reference to a simple reading of a narrow portion of the law. However, the nature or intent or motive of the method help determine if its actually illegal or not, and that simply is not present based upon the posters words. Its simply maintenance or replacement, based upon the posters words, and the intent is clearly, based upon the posters words, to make it legal and as long as he does that then there is no illegal act. So I seriously doubt a "gun control ninja stike team" is going to be busting through his door.
