From: Ryan M Gill (rmgill@mindspring.com)
Date: Fri Jan 24 2003 - 08:21:22 PST
At 11:11 AM -0500 1/24/03, Steve & Jeanne Keith wrote:
>What is the difference and is there a givmint site that explains this?
Demil means that the gun's receiver or what the BATF considers to be
the key component, has been cut and destroyed in such a way that it'd
be near impossible to repair it and make the weapon functional.
Dewats are DE-activated WAr Trophy, but they have intact receivers
that the BATF considers to be reparable and restorable to functioning
condition.
From http://www.astro.uu.nl/~krijger/BI/ME/nfa_faq.txt
Also see http://www.recguns.com/Sources/IIF1.html
DEWATs
A DEWAT is an unservicable gun that has an intact receiver,
thus, as of the GCA of 1968, it is a machine gun. In 1955 the ATT
decided that a gun that was a registered war souvenir (or for a
time, a contraband unregistered gun) could be removed from the
coverage of the NFA if it was rendered unservicable by steel
welding the breech closed, and steel welding the barrel to the
frame. All this was to be done under the supervision of an ATT
inspector. The gun became a wall hanger, ornament, like parts sets
now. This was not the same as an unservicable gun, which was still
subject to the NFA, but exempt from the transfer tax. These steel
welded guns were DEWAT's. DEWAT stands for DEactivated WAr Trophy;
it was regularly done for servicemen who wished to bring home NFA
war souveniers. It was also done to WWI and WWII era guns imported
as surplus by companies like ARMEX International, and Interarmco,
and then sold through the mail in ads in gun magazines, Popular
Mechanics and the like. The glory days before 1968. A DEWAT
must now be registered to be legal, there is no longer a legal difference
between a DEWAT and an unservicable weapon. A few states only
allow individuals to own DEWAT machine guns, Iowa comes to mind.
A DEWAT machine gun transfers tax free, as a "curio or
ornament", on a Form 5. To be a DEWAT, a gun should have a steel
weld in the chamber, and have the plugged barrel steel welded to
the frame or receiver. Having said that, a gun may be registered
as unservicable and not be de-activated in this manner. It may have
cement or lead in the barrel, or a piece of rod welded, soldered or
brazed in the barrel. Despite the repeated warnings from ATT,
apparently DEWATs were made or imported that did not have steel
welds. And a weapon registered as "unservicable" before 1968
apparently was not held to these standards. The (ostensible)
reason machine gun receivers were redefined as machine guns, thus
bringing DEWATs under the NFA regulation was that folks were
regularly and easily making their DEWATs live guns w/o complying
with the law. Some barrel plugs were so poor they would fall out
with little coaxing. The thing with buying a DEWAT is that it may
be easy to make it live, or it may be hard. The gun may be
pristine or rather beat up. They usually cost less than a live gun
because they will not be 100% original if made live. However if
you just want a shooter buying a DEWAT and getting it made live can
often be cheaper than an original gun. DEWAT guns are best not
bought sight unseen, unless you do not wish to make it live, but
have it as a wall hanger. The exact state and extent of the welds
will determine how hard it is to make live. However if you want a
wall hanger, a dummy gun is much cheaper, and requires no paperwork.
They can look totally authentic. They do not have an intact
machine gun receiver, but a partially machined dummy receiver.
Any NFA weapon can be a DEWAT, although they pretty much
tend to be machine guns, but someone could DEWAT a silencer
for an indiviudal to own in Missouri, for example. I don't know
what ATF would require to DEWAT a silencer though... Or what the
point would be.
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