No NFA Firearm

The Black Aces FIREARM is what the ATF calls it.

The “firearm” by Black Aces Tactical has all the characteristics of a short shotgun, without the name. It shoots 2 3/4″ shotgun shells, uses a pump for cycling, and even leaves a big hole in whatever it shoots. But the ATF’s own wording was used to design a firearms that cannot be called a shotgun, an SBS, an SBR, a pistol, an AOW.
If you still didn’t get that, this firearm is not a shotgun, it is not a short-barrel shotgun, it’s not a short-barrel rifle, it’s not a short-barrel pistol. Again, it is a firearm. That is what it’s classified as.
Black Aces Tactical designed this thing from scratch in its current state. In other words, it is not a modified firearm, shotgun, rifle, or anything else. It was designed from the ground up as you see it, therefore it never had an original classification of a shotgun, rifle, pistol, or anything like that. That being said, it was never fit with a stock. Given that it’s never been fit with a stock, the ATF does not classify this as a shotgun, and therefore it’s not an NFA item.

What do you all think?, loophole or not, its a very cool piece of firearm!

Video Transcription
Folks it’s not often that we get a firearm that we’re excited about, and that we feel like falls in an innovative category. Let’s face it: Everybody’s making an AR-15, a lot of people are making 1911s, and a lot of people are not making striker-fire handguns. This particular weapon, and we’re gonna call it a weapon, we’re gonna call it a firearm, because it’s not a shotgun even though it resembles one.

What we’re gonna be doing is, we’re gonna do a review on this thing, because it classifies by the ATF’s definition as a firearm. Again, it’s not a shotgun, even though it shoots 12-gauge 2 3/4 inch shotgun shells. We’re gonna take a real close look at this thing. Our boy Eric Lemoine over at Black Aces Tactical was kind enough to send us one, we’re gonna take a nice hard look at it, and we’re gonna explain to you guys why this is actually a firearm, not a shotgun.

Now let’s get the confusing stuff out of the way. Again, this firearm is not a shotgun, it is not a short-barrel shotgun, it’s not a short-barrel rifle, it’s not a short-barrel pistol. Again, it is a firearm. That is what it’s classified as.

The important thing to remember is that Eric Lemoine over at Black Aces Tactical designed this thing from scratch in its current state. In other words, it is not a modified firearm, shotgun, rifle, or anything else. It was designed from the ground up as you see it, therefore it never had an original classification of a shotgun, rifle, pistol, or anything like that. That being said, it was never fit with a stock. Given that it’s never been fit with a stock, the ATF does not classify this as a shotgun, and therefore it’s not an NFA item.

The overall length is over 26 inches in the extended position, therefore it’s not an ‘any other’ weapon. Now the firearm must have a forward grip in order to operate the action, and it doesn’t matter if it’s in a verticle, horizontal, or in the angled position, the fact that a forward grip is actually on this weapon disqualifies it from being a pistol, because a pistol cannot have a forward grip. So you’re not adding a forward grip, making it something else, it was already designed with the forward grip, and since a pistol can’t have a forward grip, it’s not a pistol. The only remaining classification for this weapon is a ‘firearm’. And as a consequence, a firearm can be transferred to any individual in all but a few states.

I gotta say, it’s very ingenius for Eric to have done this. He basically have designed this weapon around the ATF’s wording. Now I’m not sure if the ATF is happy about this, dissatisfied with this, or quite frankly, they might be impressed that somebody has designed a firearm around their own wording in such a clever manner, to make a firearm like this Black Aces Tactical that can be sold, transferred, whatever, in most states of the united states, without breaking any laws, without requiring any stamps, without requiring any additional classification, other than it being a firearm and it being able to be transferred just like any other firearm is.
[Humming] Gonna blow some [BARK] up.
Now let’s see how it shoots.

Alright folks, we got three plates set up at ten feet right here. We’re just wanting to simulate and show what quick transitions from target to target would mean, in somewhat of a life-type situation. We’re not trying to hunt, we’re not trying to knock birds out of the sky or anything like that, even though we’re at a skeet range. What we’re trying to show you again is a ten-foot shot on steel targets here, just to give you an idea how quickly you could move from target to target. Now I’m not gonna be blowing the doors off of anything as far as time goes, I just want to show you that it’s an easy, smooth transition by not swinging a huge barrel all the way across from one target to the other, so check this out.

One round in… Good to go. Alright. Check this out now. I’m tucking this, not shouldering this, so it’s not a perfect aim. I’m not shouldering it because I don’t wanna get the ATF pulling our videos off. So check this.

Now you might be wondering, what’s that spring right there? What that is, is that’s your forward assist for assisting your pump in sliding forward. When you bring this thing rearward to grab your next shell, instead of pushing it forward like you normally would do, you can just let off of it, and it’s gonna automatically send that thing forward, so that you’re not pumping forward and backward. You’re bring it backwards to eject the spent casing, let go, and it’s grabbing your next one and bringing it up into the chamber.

This thing is so short you can’t even prop it into a shotgun rack.
And if you guys were wondering if there’s any difficulty in utilizing the sig brace– well, the way the ATF expects us to use it– check this out. It’s not that big of a deal.
[Shots]
Easy-peasy right there.

Another thing that’s really cool about this Black Aces Firearm is the fact that it’s so portable, you can fold the stock, fit it into some type of what you would consider a ‘bug-out bag’ or anything like that, and have room for your extra magazines and ammunition. This is a great firearm to keep in your vehicle if you’re looking for something like that.

Friends, there are some firearms out there that are fun to shoot, there are some firearms that are functional, there’s some firearms out there that’re self-defense firearms. Honestly, this Black Aces tactical firearm, I find them to be all three. It’s very functional, I love the shortness of it, I love the cleverness of it being so short, and how Eric managed to get this thing built like it is, but it’s a great self-defense firearm. This thing is not gonna run into doors in your home, you’re not gonna have any issues of bumping into anything. I love the fact that, and this is my simple mind, that the shorter this barrel is, it’s gonna give me the spread that I’m looking for at very short distances, probably a little bit quicker than rounds that are exiting -buckshot I should say- that’s exiting a longer barrel. So in a shorter, tighter space, I’m gonna get a wider spread than I would get with an 18-inch barrel or longer.

So, I love this thing. It’s a lot of fun to shoot, it’s very functional, these guys are all onto something. I love the fact that they’re using a tride-and-true receiver here with Mossberg, you really can’t go wrong with that. I mean what can I say about Mossberg that hasn’t already been said? But I love the fact that it’s box-fed, quickchanges, you’re not gonna be reloading round after round after round, you can hammer these five-round or these eight-round magazines in place with very little effort, little bit of practice it takes to get used to where the thumb’s gonna be, but no different than any AK that you would use. You hook the front, slide it in there again, it’s a lot of fun to play with.

I like the fact that you can put things on the end of it like the flashlight, or like a laser, Crimson Trace has a great laser that’ll fit on the end of this thing, really do you some good. Because remember, we’re not shooting this thing from the shoulder, so we’re pretty much hip-shooting it whenever we use this, unless of course we’re using the Sig Brace.

So you’re kinda using your weapons light or your lasers to aim this thing, and that’s gonna be a big help. As you can see I’m not the best shot trying to hip-shoot this thing, but you know, if I had a light in low-light conditions, and my light was telling me where my round was gonna go, I’m probably gonna be a little bit more accurate, because this thing’s gonna be more accurate where it’s putting that beam than what I am hip-shooting it. So again, I think that, uh, do yourself a favor, put something on the front of it.

There are some stripped-down models, this is a higher-end model that pretty much has all the bells and whistles, and the kickstand and whatever else you might want on this thing.
There are some stripped-down models that are not gonna feel like the stripped-down model. They don’t have the forward-assist for your pump-action, they don’t have the Picatinny rail that goes across the top, they don’t have the folding stock, so if you’re looking to get into one of these things for a little bit cheaper, you definitely can. There’s a wide variety of things. Check ’em out. Black Aces Tactical. I love this thing. This thing is gonna be sitting next to my bed, with a box fulla death in case somebody decides to kick my door in and do my family any harm.
[Outro]
BTW, did you know we have a digital magazine? If interested in a peek, send me an email to info@americanshootingjournal.com

Sources: Eric Lemoine, Black Aces Tactical, Legally Armed America Youtube