"New" machine gun with reg. sear?

[heimue]

This is a purely hypothetical question:

Let's assume there is somebody with a new idea (I mean "new" like in "the world has not seen it before, ever") about manufacturing a machine gun. How can he make a prototype to see if it is really working? Is there an exclusion from the law like "you can not make a new machine gun but for law enforcement and for the patent office"? Would it require to use a registered part (e.g. a sear) from a totally different machine gun, and build the new gun around it?

Dieter :50_cal

 

[MuzzleFlash]

Per BATF even a MFR can't make MGs solely for R&D purposes. They're constantly redefining 922(o) based on which way the wind blows.

 

[Patriot]

That kind of kills all new research for military automatic weapons, doesn't it?

 

[Mike26038]

That kind of kills all new research for military automatic weapons, doesn't it?

That is why we turn to FN for our military weapons.

Just amagine were our Country would be if John Browning and Garand, and Eugene Stoner, and Hiram Maxim would not have been allowed to build their ideas..

 

[Goat]

It has worked for some people. Like the subguns made by BRP on old Stemple tubes. If that is what you were talking about.

I get the feeling that if you found a new and ceative use for say a registered Lightning Link our friends at the BATF&E would crap in your cornflakes. Even though it is on paper as being a legal part to make a machine gun, creativity is discouraged.

 

[SecondAmend]

For the past ten years or more almost everybody does mechanical (and electronic, hydraulic, you name it) designs in CAD and then does simulations and testing via integrated software packages (CATIA, SIEMENS-NX, Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks, Autodesk Inventor, SolidEdge, etc.). The days of building and testing numerous stages of prototypes till you get it right are long gone for any serious design work.