Mag capacity limit for importing shotguns?

[Nickel Plated]

Just curious. Is there a magazine capacity limit when it comes to importing shotguns? As far as I know the import laws that guns imported into the US can't have any of the typical assault weapon features but I haven't seen anything mentioning a specific mag capacity. Yet any imported shotguns I see seem to have at most a 5+1 capacity.

Take the Win SXP for example. Manufactured in Turkey and imported into the US. Here they are available in 4+1 for all the sporting and hunting models and 5+1 for the Defender model. Both pretty much the same just a slightly longer mag on the Defender (Which bothers the hell out of me BTW. Why not just stick to a single standard? Instead of splitting their product line in half over what? One extra round? Make em all 5+1 and call it a day)
But if you look at various European sites that sell the SXP. They have a 7+1 High Capacity Defender model with a 20" barrel.
I would love one yet they are not available here in the US. Neither are the barrels and mag tubes to build one yourself. Why is that?

here's the link to Winchester International with the 7+1 Defender.
http://www.winchesterint.com/winche...hp?group1=1&group2=3&group3=&submod=A-WSXPDEF

 

[Prince Yamato]

I believe it's 5 rounds, which is why all the Benelli m2 and m4 shotguns come in that way.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Yes there is but you are free to mofify the gun as long as you change a certain threshold number of imported parts with domesticaly manufactured parts

It's all very technical but customising imported guns is an easy source of accidental felons (should say potential accidental felons--I've never heard of a prosecution, esp. since there are no marking requirements for the domestic parts!) It's what makes the AR15 so popular. American protectionism . . .

Google 18 USC 922R. It is all really complicated, absurd, and deadly serious at the same time.

Mike

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Here is a pretty good explanantion: http://home.comcast.net/~navy87guy/home/922r.html

Mike

 

[Nickel Plated]

Yea, I'm aware of all the 922r stuff. Was just curious why all the shotguns coming in are so neutered. Didn't think a pump gun would be subject to the assault weapon rules.

 

[Speedo66]

50 different states, 50 different laws.

They probably go by the lowest common denominator (states with strictest gun laws), and bring in one model that fits all.

 

[tarosean]

Yea, I'm aware of all the 922r stuff. Was just curious why all the shotguns coming in are so neutered.

I would imagine its because of "sporting purposes" coupled with the fact that a lot states still have a 3 shell Hunting laws in shotguns.

 

[Ash]

Individual state laws will not affect importation - that is federal responsibility. To come into the US, it has to fit within the "sporting purposes" test - a generally vague description that gets to be determined by any current administration. To be honest, it rarely gets meddled with and so far I can't think of any changes the current one has made. 922r applies only to manufacture of firearms in the US, not to importation of them. It states that you cannot build a firearm from foreign components and get an arm that is not importable because of the "sporting purposes" clause.

It might be perfectly legal to import shotguns with long tubes. I just don't know. However, I suspect 5 rounds is the max due to the sporting purposes clause. Now, let's assume that the sporting purposes clause did not prevent full-length magazine tubes but for hunting in most states (or through federal laws with migratory birds like ducks or geese) that total rounds for hunting are limited to a point that it made no financial sense to import high-magazine shotguns for hunters. Importers might still limit magazine capacity for that reason.

In any case, importation has nothing to do with state laws, only federal ones. An importer could actually be set up in a hostile state and still import arms that are patently illegal in that state. As long as they don't sell in that state, it's okay.