Bert H. said

Charles,

Jessica never offers opinions about the legitimacy of any firearms, and it is prohibited by CFM policy for her to do so.  Further, if the factory ledgers do not indicate full nickel plate and the 12-inch barrel, the odds are 99.999% that it is not original in that configuration.  I sincerely doubt that the owner spoke with the BATF about this gun.  There is no “grandfather” clause for a SBR under the purveyance of the NFA.  The only SBRs that are automatically exempted from the NFA are those manufactured before January 1st, 1899 (antique).

Bert  

Under the 1934 NFA pre-1899 antique SBR are not automatically exempted. The 1934 NFA, which deals with short barreled rifles and shotguns, defines antiques as not chambered for fixed ammunition.

Under the United States Gun Control Act of 1968, any cartridge firearm made in or before 1898 (“pre-1899”) is classified as an “antique”, and is generally outside of Federal jurisdiction,^[8] as administered and enforced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). The only exceptions to the Federal exemption are antique machineguns (such as the Maxim gunand Colt Model 1895 “Potato Digger”) and antique cartridge rifles or shotguns firing shotgun shells that are classified as “short barreled” per the U.S. Gun Control Act of 1968, namely cartridge rifles with a barrel less than 16 inches long, or shotguns firing shotgun shells with a barrel less than 18 inches long, or either cartridge rifles or shotgun-shell-firing shotguns with an overall length of less than 26 inches. A muzzleloading black-powder rifle or shotgun is not subject to the short-barreled National Firearms Act of 1934 restrictions.

CJS57 said
Interesting that all my local gun stores are selling 12″ barrel pump shotguns that are now classified as any other weapon and are apparently legal. Yet a pre-1898 gun that is similar is illegal. Strange………….  

Those new “shotguns” with short barrels are legal because they are not shotguns. They are not “any other weapon”, a different classification by ATF. By definition in the law, a shotgun is a shoulder fired weapon. These new weapons are not, and never were, shoulder fired weapons. And they are over 26″, so they are not considered weapons capable of being concealed on the person. They are legally classified as a firearm, innovative manufacturers created a new type of firearm.