Who makes the overall decision on legality of a firearm?
I have some plans for a build but I’d hate to buy parts and build it only to have them say no. Do they give me a chance to fix it/turn it back to parts? Or do they just confiscate it?
Would be nice to have someone at HPD to email my plans to before I start the build.
Anyone know what would be the best way to get questions answered?
Thank you in advance
Yes, it would be very nice to have someone in state government provide interpretations of the gun laws, so we know whether or not our interpretations are correct or not. Unfortunately, the only people that will make that determination are called a judge and jury. The AG's office says you need to hire your own attorney if you're seeking legal definitions and interpretations. The AG isn't going to give legal opinions outside of a courtroom unless you are asking from a state government employee perspective.
Even if you found someone with the authority to "bless" your detailed plans as "legal", there's nothing stopping them from declaring it illegal when you take the finished firearm for "inspection." That runs a much higher risk of being confiscated than a few parts being inspected during the build (as in, presenting the lower and getting input as to how the mag is permanently fixed; only requires 2 parts and isn't yet a functional weapon. Much less risk of confiscation).
You can't get something you haven't started building approved as "legal." If you ask for an opinion on an abstract drawing or description, you're going to get various answers depending on who you ask. That's just the MO of HPD.
There are so few rules on what makes a gun illegal, you're better off deciding on what you want to build and asking on here what features or specs might be a problem.
The way receivers are classified now, it would be unlikely to have them confiscated unless you did something that can't be remedied. The old way receivers were categorized, if it was ever built and registered as a rifle, it could never be reassembled as a pistol. Now, receivers don't have to be identified as a rifle OR a pistol on the ATF 4473. It can be classified "Other", and HPD can register it as "Receiver Only." At that point, you have a registered (albeit unassembled) firearm -- by definition -- legally acquired and registered.
Question: If you buy and register a shotgun, will it always be legal? Of course, that depends on any modifications you make. If you shorten the barrel to less than 18" and/or make the overall length less than 26", it then falls under the NFA and requires a special certificate from the ATF and payment of an NFA tax.
Since all NFA-controlled items are
illegal in Hawaii (with a few exceptions if you're LE or military), making the shotgun OAL or barrel too short makes it illegal here.
The same concept apples to an AR pistol. You can ask if 10 features or specs are legal, and get back a "yes" answer. Then, after doing the build, you unintentionally did something that makes it illegal. See the problem? A lot of restrictions are contingent on other conditions. If you don't have the thing fully assembled, anything you do to it might be a problem. Let's say, you want a detachable mag and a semi-auto action. Now you need to go through the whole list of features that are limited to ONE out of the 6+ items and see what you can live without. If you can live with only one feature out of all the things that define it as an assault pistol, then you can keep the detachable mag and DI gas system.
Here are the rules for an AR pistol. As long as you avoid the characteristics that make it an "Assault Pistol," it's not illegal.
"Assault pistol" means a semiautomatic pistol that accepts a detachable magazine and has two or more of the following characteristics:
(1) An ammunition magazine that attaches to the pistol outside of the pistol grip;
(2) A threaded barrel capable of accepting a barrel extender, flash suppressor, forward hand grip, or silencer;
(3) A shroud that is attached to or partially or completely encircles the barrel and permits the shooter to hold the firearm with the second hand without being burned;
(4) A manufactured weight of fifty ounces or more when the pistol is unloaded;
(5) A centerfire pistol with an overall length of twelve inches or more; or
(6) It is a semiautomatic version of an automatic firearm;
but does not include a firearm with a barrel sixteen or more inches in length, an antique pistol as defined in this section, or a curio or relic as those terms are used in 18 United States Code section 921(a)(13) or 27 Code of Federal Regulations section 478.11.
Since detachable magazine is listed before the "and" clause, you can ignore every other feature if you permanently attach the magazine, which is what most builders do. Just one single change from a "normal" AR pistol, and it's legal.
Same logic applies to the 5th word of the first sentence: "semiautomatic". If you disable or don't install the gas system, making it a manual action pistol, nothing following that clause is relevant.
If you want to turn this into an exercise for testing HPD to see what parts of the envelope you can push and how far, then have at it. Otherwise, you might be overthinking the project and the details pertaining to legality.