I'm not a member of NFATCA, though I probably should be. I registered in this forum early on, but I believe this will be my first post. You may know me from Machinegunboards.com, and/or Sturmgewehr.com, and/or Knob Creek.

I'm currently considering making a request to ATF to have "XD" prefix "M2" marked, Inland manufactured Carbines removed from automatically being considered machine guns. I'd like to approach this under the name of the Carbine Club, and I have asked them (a cooperative collector association) to consider whether this is something they would like to pursue. I also want to check if NFATCA has any interest in it, which is the purpose of this post.

M2 Carbines, and the various iterations of M1/M2 conversions, overstamps, and registered part sets are among the most confusing NFA items in the registry. At some point, ATF decided that anything marked "M2" is considered a machine gun. This makes sense on the surface, since almost all Inland M2's, and the limited Winchester manufactured M2's (Mostly M1/M2 Overstamps) were assembled into machine guns for our military. However, as further M2 production was cancelled by the government, Inland had manufactured some M2 receivers that never got assembled into machine guns. That is the key point...they were never assembled into machine guns, and should technically not be considered such. The exact number is unknown, but it's probably between 50 to 75 guns, and they were stamped with an "XD" serial number prefix. These Carbines were then presented to employees of Inland in Dayton, Ohio, some with special plaques, etc., and they were taken home without another thought as to their NFA status in 1945, because they were never considered machine guns by Inland, even though they were marked "M2."

Recently on Facebook, one of these Carbines was highlighted, and the owner was informed that their Carbine was an NFA item. It had never been registered, and ended up being turned in to ATF, and almost certainly destroyed. Its serial number was XD43. I have included a photo of it below.

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Anyway, while I do not personally know of any other examples that are out there, I'm sure there are more. I've heard people talk about them at OGCA, and online, and there are likely more of them in my general vicinity, since I live about 35 miles from the former Inland plant location. I'd like to see these guns become saved from potential destruction.

Is this something that NFATCA would have any interest in pursuing? My current idea is to submit a letter from me, indicating the support of the Carbine Club, and NFATCA, requesting a variance to ATF for XD marked Inland M2 receivers, removing them from the NFA Registry, and possibly specifically listing them on the C&R list as regular firearms. I'm open to suggestion on this, which I'm soliciting here in this post. I do not yet have the support of either the Carbine Club, or NFATCA, and am just looking for input and support at this point.

I look forward to any input that may be presented here on this board.

Sincerely,

David Albert
dalbert@sturmgewehr.com