Both parts of this book’s corpus state the same rule, from two directions. Part 478 puts it as a flat prohibition on licensees: no person shall transfer or possess a machine gun except a transfer to or by, or possession by or under the authority of, the United States or any department or agency of it, or a State or a department, agency, or political subdivision of a State — or any lawful transfer or lawful possession of a machine gun that was LAWFULLY POSSESSED BEFORE MAY 19, 1986. Part 479 states the same two exceptions as the reason an application must be denied when approval would place the maker or transferee in violation of law, and draws the consequence: notwithstanding any other provision of that part, no application to make, transfer, or import a machine gun will be approved except as the section provides.

The pre-1986 exception is narrower than the way it is usually repeated. A machine gun possessed in compliance with the part before May 19, 1986 may continue to be lawfully possessed BY THE PERSON TO WHOM IT IS REGISTERED, and may — on compliance with the part — be lawfully transferred to and possessed by a transferee. So the pool is closed but not frozen: what was registered before that date can still change hands through the ordinary transfer machinery. What cannot happen is a new machine gun entering that pool.

The trade routes that remain open all run toward government use. Qualified importers and manufacturers may import and manufacture machine guns on or after May 19, 1986 for sale or distribution to a federal, state, or local governmental entity, or for use by qualified dealers as SALES SAMPLES; registration and any subsequent transfer of those weapons is conditioned upon and restricted to sale or distribution for the official use of governmental entities. Manufacturers may also make them for exportation in compliance with the Arms Export Control Act. Making a machine gun on or after that date is approved only for the benefit of a governmental entity — an invention for possible future use, or research and development on such an entity’s behalf — and only where specific information establishes both that the weapon is particularly suitable for such use and that the making is at the request and on behalf of that entity.

The dealer sales sample route carries a real evidentiary burden, and it is where optimism does the most damage. An application to transfer and register a post-1986 machine gun to a qualified dealer will be approved only if specific information establishes the expected governmental customers who would require a demonstration of the weapon, the availability of the machine gun to fill subsequent orders, and letters from governmental entities expressing a need for a particular model or interest in seeing a demonstration of it. To transfer more than one of a particular model, the dealer must also establish the need for that QUANTITY. And the obligation follows the business to its end: a qualified manufacturer, importer, or dealer intending to discontinue business must, before going out of business, transfer any post-1986 machine gun to a governmental entity, a qualified manufacturer, a qualified importer, or a dealer qualified to possess it under the sales-sample rule.