Thread: Length of a rifle with welded on suppressor?

For those who are interested I spoke to the lawyer Nickolas Taylor and the Tauranga Arms Officer today regarding overall length with fixed suppressor.

The Police Policy concerned:
"Standard firearms that have muzzle attachments including muzzle breaks and silencers, will be measured for their overall length with the muzzle attachments removed"

Lawyer Nicholas Taylor:
"My view is that the court would take an extremely dim view of this 'policy', as it is not supported by any legislation and appears to be manifestly unreasonable and unworkable in practice.

If a muzzle break or silencer is required so that the overall length of the firearm is greater than 762mm, then it would be legal under current legislation but would need to be kept at all times on the firearm so as to comply with the Arms Act 1983.

Even though not strictly a legal requirement pursuant to the Arms Act 1983, a possible compromise position may be to have the muzzle device 'pinned', glued or welded to prevent the 'inadvertent removing' of a muzzle device thus reducing the overall required length to below 762mm.

If the muzzle device is fixed making the firearm 762mm in length or greater, it would fit under the Arms Act as compliant. Only by a deliberate and intentional modification by police of the firearm using both force and tools to remove the muzzle device would it be classed as under 762mm and therefore a pistol. However this forced removal would render the firearm into something that it was never intended by the owner to be and therefore render it inadmissible."

Arms Office Paul McLennan
(07) 577 4412
He said that Police Policy of measuring to the muzzle is only the Police interpretation of the Arms Act and it is therefore open to other opinions/interpretations.

He suggested that I email him with what I have in mind and include the lengths the rifle would be before and after installing a fixed suppressor, and also include any court judgements I know of regarding firearm overall length measurements.
He would send this email to the Head Office in Auckland and see what written reply comes back.

I'll get that email away tomorrow as I am interested in what they have to say. @rambo-6mmrem made a good point though and the more I have looked into welding my stainless steel suppressor onto the carbon steel barrel of my .22 the more problematic it seems ie:

"When stainless steel is joined with carbon steel, for example a stainless tube and carbon-steel tube in a heat exchanger, the steel will suffer from galvanic corrosion attack. You'll get a galvanic reaction (small battery forming), and the chromium oxide layer which gives stainless steel its corrosion resistance will be compromised. The stainless steel will rust where the carbon steel touches it. However problems with galvanic corrosion seldom occur between two stainless steels".

So it looks like it will only work if both the barrel and the suppressor are stainless steel.