Our friends over at Ammoland published a story today about a company called ARMagLock, which claims to have created a device that renders the AR-15 a fixed-magazine firearm, defeating the Connecticut, New York, and proposed California “assault weapon registration requirements.

From ARMagLock:

ARMagLock is a new patent pending AR-15 fixed magazine solution that allows New York, Connecticut and California AR-15 owners to avoid assault weapon registration within
their respective state by staying compliant with the laws.

The California Legislature is now trying to pass a law mandating registration of all assault weapons. SB 47 will require that all assault weapons owners register their firearms with the CA DOJ, to include AR-15 firearms with magazine locking devices requiring a tool or bullet to remove the magazine. The registration shall contain a description of the firearm that identifies it uniquely, including all identification marks, the full name, address, date of birth, and thumbprint of the owner, and any other information that the department may deem appropriate.

SB 47 amends the definition of an assault weapon to refer to a rifle that has one of several specified military-style features and “does not have a fixed magazine,” rather than a gun with one of those features and the “capacity to accept a detachable magazine. Continued legal possession requires that you REGISTER and pay a FEE (TAX) on ALL your semi-autos newly classified as “assault weapons.”

These new laws apply to rifles that do not have a fixed magazine. The laws define “fixed magazine” as an ammunition feeding device contained in, or permanently attached to, a firearm in such a manner that the device cannot be removed without disassembly of the firearm action. This wording essentially renders other magazine locking devices useless. AR-15 owners now have to disassemble their firearm action in order to release the magazine.

Just to be sure there is no confusion, the new law states (b) (1) Any person who, from January 1, 2001, to December 31, 2013, inclusive, lawfully possessed an assault weapon that does not have a fixed magazine, as defined in Section 30515, including those weapons with an ammunition feeding device that can be removed readily from the firearm with the use of a tool, shall register the firearm before July 1, 2015. See here for exact wording of the law: SB 47.

The ARMagLock turns your firearm into a “fixed magazine” firearm that cannot release the magazine unless you pull the takedown pin, and separate the upper and lower receivers, thus “disassembling” the firearm action. Once the receivers are minimally separated, the ARMagLock can be engaged to release the magazine.

Installing the device looks relatively straightforward, and non-permanent.

I’ll let lawyers weigh in and tell us whether the device actually does meet the letter of the law in all three states, but if it does what it claims, it’s a wonderful political tool, even if it is a (purposefully) feature-debilitating addition to AR-15s.

Theoretically speaking, the ARMagLock would seem to make AR-15 style rifles compliant with the laws and preclude registration, while still enabling them to be readily converted back to a normally functioning firearm when residents of these states either visit or move to free states (or if they are to be used as the founders intended as “liberty’s teeth”).

If you’re stuck in one of theses three states, would it be worth it to you to spend a little over $50 to avoid having to register your rifle, or would you rather simply register, or not register or modify your rifle and hope you don’t get caught?