ColdBlue

Gee, my own firearms attorney. Who wants to use this gun to make all of yours worthless. Reading comprehension isn't any of your strong suits is it? Logic being the operative word here. I think we can call this topic, I've established that nobody else has had this conversation with ATF or NFA branch. That's the whole point of this topic.

HK USA didn't exist at that time IIRC, it would have been SACO or maybe H&R FOIA is in the works, I have a buddy litigating for a large gun rights org. so getting a judge to look at it may be in the cards. He seems to think I have a very important key sitting in my possession for one of his upcoming cases. Who knows. I will be updating either way. Like I said earlier, it doesn't really matter to me if the gun is transferable or not. I wouldn't sell it even if it was.

Are you familiar with any number of other non 922R compliant Title I firearms sold out from federal agencies and sold over the counter as title I firearms? Apparently there's some federal magic going on that allows them to just do what they please when they please. This is the exact scenario ATF used to explain how this worked. The import by, and use by, a federal LE agency satisfied and got rid of the post 68 restriction just as the SIG 550 rifles were imported, used, and sold by a federal agency rid them of any requirement to comply with 922R. "Satisfied and got rid of" being their words not mine. In fact the comparison was made by someone in the "upstairs" of NFA branch whoever the hell that is. I've requested in writing the status of this gun along with the recently attached "notation" associated with it in the registry. Until I receive something in the mail, and knowing them it's going to be a hot second, I can't do anything further. I'm curious to see if the other poster with a 12/72 SD has import markings? Every other Pre-may mp5 I've ever seen is either marked SACO or HK on the mag well. My mag well is blank on both sides.

Date of MFG has nothing to do with this. Specifically the act of a federal agency acquiring the firearm direct, using it, then selling it to a dealer as a surplus item prior to the 1986 cutoff is what ATF proposes removed the import restriction.

My gun has no provision to mount an optics rail and it has a weird charging handle assembly which doesn't appear to interchange with modern parts. Beautiful gun btw.

Why is it so difficult to understand that The NFA branch, their legal team, and ATF had provided an explanation for why the post-68 restriction no longer applies in this particular case?

Well a Pre-may gun or NFA item on a F3 can transfer back to another dealer on a Form 4 I've seen that happen when it's coming from a sole prop. who surrendered their license. I've bought a pre-may Uzi and a DD USAS-12 with an actual physical stamps that transferred from a former dealer to me on Form 4s like that. They still showed up in my inventory and I was able to sell the Uzi on a F3 no problem. I've never had an IOI contact NFA branch to inquire about the status of a firearm at discontinuance of business only for the red non-transferable firearm to drop out of inventory completely for several days and be replaced with a white transferable item along with a phone call shortly after from NFA branch & an IOI who provided the explanation I received in regards to why this happened. I was urged to keep contact details for both gentlemen and request an amended form which I have. This thing just didn't drop out of my Form 4 or Form 3 inventory like a pending transfer. It dropped completely from my inventory then reappeared a week later. I've never seen, or heard of anything like this happening before. Like I said earlier, this isn't about the money. I wouldn't sell the gun at any price. This is more me trying to figure out if I stumbled on some kind of unicorn event.

Yes it would! I have requested an updated form reflecting the new status. I'm told there will be an explanation on an additional page. One of the reasons I haven't posted pictures is because I'm waiting on that and transport paperwork to my new location. It's still in a safe back east.

I'd be interested to know myself as I know for a fact I've read about some Benelli shotguns recalled by NFA branch after final F4 transfer. What passes muster? State? County? Federal only? Is this another reversal? Should we write a dozen letters for clarification? (Please don't) I'd also be very interested to know what agency purchased it in 1972-1973. I don't know of any official adoption of an Mp5 by a US federal agency in that time frame. I was unable to get any info on the original purchaser from ATF. FOIA seems like the only option. Of note though, there are no import markings present on the firearm. The only stampings are "HK MP5" "KAL. 9mmX19" "S/N" and "12/72" Also of note, my form lists the type of firearm as "Submachine-gun". I haven't ever seen that before either.

MP5A2 12/72 date code. This came from NFA branch not my IOI but like you said some pretty big errors have been made by NFA branch in the past so I wouldn't put it past them. Specifically the act of the firearm being purchased directly from H&K by a federal agency, then sold, removed the import restriction. As it was explained to me this is also the case with certain Title I semi-automatics and Benelli SBS shotguns.

It did, and it helped brighten & offset some pretty big personal losses over the last few years. We've had a lot of death. I'll throw it out there now that I'm not interested in selling the gun regardless of status or establishing any kind of value. I've been floating this story around to other dealer friends and I've asked to sell it a dozen times before I even came here to post about it and it's consistently been a solid no from me even at the ridiculous offer of 100K. I like unique NFA history and for me that's the major appeal of the gun at this point. Before this happened it was just another gun to me. If this is truly a unique case then I feel like this is a really special piece of history which deserves to be documented and put up.

I've got an imported H&K factory MG from the early 70s, when I gave up my FFL & SOT my IOI took the serial to verify it's status as a pre-sample in the registry with NFA branch before I was allowed to log the gun out to myself. He comes back with surprise it's a transferable gun and the paperwork has been updated on their end to reflect this. During this period the gun disappeared from my inventory for a few days on Eforms then reappeared as a white transferable gun instead of red when looking at my inventory under Eform 4. Apparently this was all cleared and deemed kosher by the upstairs people at NFA branch. NFA's reasoning is that it was imported by a federal agency, used by said agency, then sold to a dealer on a Form 4 prior to 1986 and this action removed the import restriction. I have never heard of this happening before. Has anyone else?