The April 2009 edition of the NFA Handbook has removed pin & weld from the methods that are allowed to extend barrels to the minimum (16″ rifle, 18″ shotgun) length to avoid paying an SBR/SBS tax.
What happens to the millions of barrels out there that were pinned and welded? Time will tell. Sections 2.1.1 and 2.1.3 are the sections of interest; section 2.1.3 states:
Note: Any muzzle attachment such as a compensator, choke device, muzzle break, etc., is not included in the barrel length measurement unless the attachment is permanently affixed to the barrel. Acceptable methods for permanently attaching a device to a shotgun barrel are deep penetrating, full fusion, gas or electric steel seam welds or high temperature silver solder.
This is a change from previous years. Please be aware of this change if you own a (now contraband) barrel or are considering a new barrel in the future.
ETA: ARFCOM thread one, two, three. Conflicting information if this is a copy-paste error (the rifle section talks about shotguns) or a real change.
ETA: remember, there are two classes of NFA items: tax paid and contraband. You cannot move from contraband to tax paid status (that is to say, you can’t make an item before you pay the tax). If this is a real change, there are a lot of contraband SBRs.
28 July 2009 at 6:17
I noticed that both sections (shotgun and rifle) used the word “shotgun”.?
28 July 2009 at 7:18
yup. looks like cut-and-paste error.
28 July 2009 at 10:09
[...] points out that ATF does not seem to have the pin & weld method in their April 2009 handbook, meaning hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of gun owners out there could have just become [...]