From: mark baxter (alleywayguns@bacavalley.com)
Date: Fri Jan 24 2003 - 08:32:08 PST
Folk's it is ATF, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, ATT is the phone company.
IF ATF deems that your Dewat is not compliant, you might have to use ATT to
phone you lawyer! LOL
Mark M-886 and GUNSMITH
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ryan M Gill" <rmgill@mindspring.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 9:21 AM
Subject: Re: [MV] Dewat versus Demill
> 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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