NFA and US PMC armories

[Presley Cannady]

Curious. What legal steps do PMCs have to take in order to acquire, possess, use and transport NFA firearms?

[Pete]

Possibly the answer to your question is to be found in Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Pamphlet 5300.4, Federal Firearms Reference Guide, available here. I'd try to find the answer myself but the document is a huge PDF file that utterly overwhelms my dial-up connection. The National Firearms Act mainly addresses the regulation of importers, manufacturers, dealers and collectors of NFA weapons; how ones in the possession of private military corporations are addressed is an interesting question.

[jmm99]

and not one where I'd venture a legal opinion that someone might rely on - to their possible detriment.

Two avenues which are reasonable: (1) ask BATF - probably need someone on a higher supervisory level - no legal advice as such, but perhaps links to all of the current law and regs applicable; and (2) find a lawyer who has represented PMCs on BATF and firearm export issues.

Not an area (machine guns and destructive devices) to be playing "legal paintball or airsoft".

Regards

Mike

[wcpassegai]

Are you specifically referring to "acquire, possess, use and transport" entirely within the USA? Or, would you be assembling material to be used in operations outside the USA? If in USA, is the "use" going to be for training, or for actual "operations" such as executive protection or facilities security? If you want you could PM or email some details and I could refer you to one or two people that could answer some questions in this regard.

[AdamG]

Tangential to the topic, praise for the RPD.
http://strikehold.wordpress.com/2009...-rpds-in-iraq/
I gather that these were acquired in-theater.

When I first arrived in Iraq I was amazed at the variety of weapons available to anyone who wanted to purchase them. Every contracting company was rushing to snap up the better conditioned weapons before the bad guys got them. There were stories of Iraqi procurement agents queuing up in Sadar City alongside the Militia and haggling with them over the price of a good machine gun. Everyone wanted heavy calibre machine guns. The Iraqi police and army needed them to protect their compounds. The contractors needed them for their PSD and convoy protection. Without a good machine gun in the last vehicle of your team you were dead.

[huskerguy7]

When I first arrived in Iraq I was amazed at the variety of weapons available to anyone who wanted to purchase them. Every contracting company was rushing to snap up the better conditioned weapons before the bad guys got them. There were stories of Iraqi procurement agents queuing up in Sadar City alongside the Militia and haggling with them over the price of a good machine gun. Everyone wanted heavy calibre machine guns. The Iraqi police and army needed them to protect their compounds. The contractors needed them for their PSD and convoy protection. Without a good machine gun in the last vehicle of your team you were dead.

Another similar story.

During the PMC "gold rush" in Iraq, most of the weapon procurements occurred beneath the table. One firm, which will remain nameless, operated out of Kuwait in the southern part of Iraq. Rather than store any weapons at their base in Kuwait, they would obtain their weapons from an ammo depot of Saddam's defunct army. Nobody monitored the depot; it was guarded with just a fence and locked gate. Somehow, the firm had acquired the keys and would pick up the weapons on their way in, and drop them off. However, once they were violently ambushed by insurgents, it was discovered that they (the insurgents) had used weapons from the same depot.