Renegade said:
There are no "constructive possession laws". Another Internet rumor. If you disagree, please post relevant USC, I have looked, but cannot find it.
There most certainly is USC that defines how to get in trouble possessing certain combinations of DD, silencer and machinegun parts!
Then there are regulations promulgated by the ATF under the authority of congress. I know everyone wants to say they can't make up laws, but they do all the time and people go to jail for violating them.
The Supreme Court long ago decided that congress was authorized by the constitution to delegate certain powers to the administrative branch agencies. Congress did just that when it created the ATF and gave it rulemaking authority. Any rule promulgated by the ATF
and upheld by the courts has the force of law just as if congress passed it. So it wouldn't matter much if the ATF enhanced a definition given by congress so long as the courts agreed and congress didn't pass a new law to slap the ATF down. Violate USC or violate a CFR, the results are the same. You go to jail.
However, you asked for US code, not ATF rules.
The relevant statutes are in the GCA and NFA as ammended.
Let's start with the GCA, Public Law 90-618, Chapter 44, Section 921 Definitions.
(a)4(C) says certain parts of a DD are in fact a DD.
(a)23 references the NFA description of machinegun making it identical. More on that later.
(a)24 says certain parts of a silencer are in fact a silencer
Now to what a machinegun is:
The NFA (and by reference, the GCA) defines machineguns in 26 USC Chap 53 5845(b) and I quote:
The term "machinegun" means any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger. The term shall also include the frame or receiver of any such weapon, any part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed and intended, for use in converting a weapon into a machinegun, and any combination of parts from which a machinegun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession or under the control of a person.
There it is in black and white.
That doesn't mean I think it's constitutional. It just means that I think you'd go to jail for possession of silencer parts or M16 fire control parts with an AR15.
References:
GCA followed by rulemakings
NFA followed by rulmakings