Texas-Book-Gun Law Armed And Educated - Flipbook - Page 75
muzzle device, withdrawn from the barrel, and then measured. Any
measurement of less than 16 inches will classify the rifle as being
short-barreled under Texas and federal law and subject the firearm
to the NFA. See Chapter 18, which discusses the NFA for shortbarreled rifles and other non-compliant firearms. Note: for overall
length, rifles with collapsible/folding stocks are measured from the
“extreme ends,” unless the stock is “easily detachable,” in which
case it is measured without the stock.
3. What is a shotgun?
Federal law defines a shotgun as “a weapon designed or redesigned,
made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder, and
designed or redesigned and made or remade to use the energy of
the explosive in a fixed shotgun shell to fire through a smooth bore
either a number of ball shot or a single projectile for each single
pull of the trigger.” See 27 CFR § 478.11. Like rifles, legal shotguns
have requirements for minimum barrel and overall lengths. Shotgun
barrels must be at least 18 inches long and must also comply with
the same 26-inch overall length requirement. Under Texas law,
shotguns are classified in the same manner as they are under federal
law. See Tex. Penal Code § 46.01(10).
Minimum lengths
In order for a shotgun to not be subject to the National Firearms Act
or classified as a short-barreled firearm under Texas law, it must
have a barrel of at least 18 inches in length. The ATF procedure for
measuring the barrel length of a shotgun is the same as it is for a
rifle.
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