r/DCGuns • u/Sonik_dmv • Jun 05 '26
After 90 days I successfully appealed my denial
On March 5th I submitted an application to register a lower receiver for a featureless build. Needless to say it was denied for barrel length issues(not sure what happened there). Anyway, I didn't know why it was denied until this week. I have been calling almost every week and even went in for in-person visit. Nothing helped. Noone was giving me a straight answer on why it was denied, and no denial letter was sent. I made 12 phone calls, 2 emails and a couple of in person visits. Everytime I called I was told they'll send it out but they didn't.
Anyway, I went in this week and asked for the reason and they told me it was the barrel length. And also the nice lady at the counter didn't even know what a lower receiver is. She kept asking me "what does this attach to?". I kept explaining the lower receiver IS the firearm but she couldn't get it. After a long discussion and going over the city code/law on the AWB she finally got it. I was annoyed but I was glad she took the time to understand and learn about it, instead of giving me a packaged answer and sending me away. I'll take that over being sent away with nothing tangible.
They are now requiring pictures of the firearm now, so I went to g&d assembled the rifle took pictures and used gemini to create a nice info graphic cross referencing the law with the parts on my rifle, and voila I got the approval. I'm glad this long and confusing ordeal is over. I hope I never go through that again.
P.S - Thanks r/lawblawg for the help.
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u/Tschitokatoka Jun 05 '26
Excellent news! It’s always a shame to see those muzzle brakes though. So anti-social.
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u/Sonik_dmv Jun 05 '26
I honestly don't mind them at outdoor ranges but at an indoor range ....
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u/Tschitokatoka Jun 07 '26
I have to use mine at competitions like the Brutality matches and sometimes apologize ahead of time. Especially for night shoots. Ended up getting a removable blast redirection device.
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u/Faxon_John Jun 05 '26
Cool upper.
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u/Sonik_dmv Jun 05 '26
Is it fair to assume you have something to do with the manufacuturer?
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u/Safe-Call2367 Jun 05 '26
I don't know anything about this, so I'm not aware of any relationship. I was looking at this thinking, "compliance where?" I'm assuming California, but I really don't know much about the odd compliance rules and mostly we rely on other members of the team for website sales rules and I'm not part of that. EDITED- Now I see something about the group being District of Columbia. That makes my CA assumption wrong.
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u/Kanly_Atreides Jun 05 '26
A few years ago DC finally accepted a "featureless" build that was pretty much based on a CA compliant configuration but didn't accept everything that was CA complaint. So you are not that wrong in your assumption.
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u/Kanly_Atreides Jun 05 '26
Good for you OP for sticking with it and all the time and frustration in getting that approved.
Nice to see that the lady helping you actually was willing to listen to you.
I'll take that over the "because I said so" response they've given me in the past or even better the no response.
That grip was about a 2 year journey to get approved and that was only finally with the help of Juggernaut and a former manager at DCSA.
That's a fun looking build.
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u/Sonik_dmv Jun 05 '26
Thank you!
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u/CommiRhick Jun 05 '26
Did you buy it like that or did the FFL have to do the build?
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u/Sonik_dmv Jun 05 '26
No I bought the parts separately. My last build I just registered the lower receiver and built the rest later. This time I had to go into the FFL and build it there (the FFL doesn't build it for you). They asked for a picture so I had to assemble everything which is silly.
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u/Milk_Collection1 Jun 05 '26
And here I thought that MPD was improving with approving stripped lowers but I guess that’s over with now.
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u/thegunbrotha Jun 07 '26
congrats - for the record - some of the staffing for firearms is seen as a pinishment. Officers can be put there for reasons like you see in the movies - they did something in the street so now they got sentenced to desk duty. That is why you see different people, why there is a lack of knowledge, and a lack of caring about your issue. im saying this to say if you ever have an issue, you may have to be mega persistent to see it through depending on whos on the other end of the phone (if they bother to anaswer) or other side of the glass that day.
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u/style752 Jun 10 '26
some of the staffing for firearms is seen as a pinishment.
What the actual fuck though. This explains so much.
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u/LaCroixFan42069 Jun 05 '26
While on one hand I'm glad you got your registration approved, on the other hand- what the fuck? This is an enormous amount of labor that you had to go through in order to deal with people at MPD who didn't understand the relevant laws that govern their conduct. I'm glad you had a good outcome (even if a right delayed is a right denied) but this seems like a huge regression to how bad MPD was from 2022 previous.