Now that the Supreme Court has chosen to allow Maryland’s scary black rifle ban to stand, the Old Line State’s restrictions on what constitutes an “assault rifle” are going to be the new reality. At least for the foreseeable future. That means there will be a market for Maryland-compliant AR’s.
We’ve seen a variety of companies design products for the huge California market, FN USA being one of them. FN apparently believes that even a state the size of Maryland warrants a couple of state-specific SKU’s, too. They’ve just announced that they’ll be offering two new models to get around comply with the state’s ludicrous attempts to make the state safer through legislation. Here’s FN’s press release . . .
FN ADDS TO LIST OF STATE-COMPLIANT RIFLES WITH NEW MARYLAND FN 15s
(McLean, VA – December 1, 2017) FN America, LLC announces today the release of two new state-compliant FN 15® models for Maryland residents. The FN 15 MD Heavy Barrel Carbine and FN 15 MD Heavy Barrel Rifle meet the state of Maryland’s requirements for sale with the heavy barrel profile, limited 10-round magazine capacity and other features.
Combining rock-solid reliability with pinpoint accuracy and battle-proven durability, the FN 15 MD Heavy Barrel Carbine and Rifle are ready for the firing line. The 10-round carbine features a free-floated, 16-inch cold hammer-forged and chrome-lined heavy-profile barrel with a 12-inch M-LOK rail, low-profile gas block and PWS muzzle break. The rifle, also with 10-round capacity, features a free-floated, 20-inch hammer-forged heavy profile barrel with chrome lining, 15-inch Samson Evolution rail, low profile gas block and threaded muzzle with thread protector.
These new FN 15s will be available at authorized distributors starting Dec. 1, 2017, and are expected to be available at retail within the month. Manufacturer’s suggested retail price is $1,399 for both models.
Learn more about the FN 15 state compliant models at www.fnamerica.com. For more information about the latest products, promotions and programs, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
That’s good. Manufacturers are getting a product out that people can buy in these slave states. I’m not from Maryland California or New Jersey or New York I’m from Florida. What exactly does a heavy barrel profile do to make in a rifle or carbine more lethal??? Maybe someone can answer this for me what other Hoops do they make you jump through besides a heavy barrel profile? That just sounds totally insane to me, but then again I’m a law-abiding gun owner and just a civilian not one of these highly educated political Representatives. LOL
If my understanding is correct (looked at moving to MD for a while, ended up in VA because sanity), MD’s AWB has a list of prohibited firearms that also bans all “copies of a banned weapon”. So normal ARs are banned because of similarities to a prohibited weapon, but the heavy barrelled variants aren’t included.
Here’s a link to MD State Police for the other restrictions: http://mdsp.maryland.gov/Organization/Pages/CriminalInvestigationBureau/LicensingDivision/Firearms/FirearmSearch.aspx
Edit: If you scroll down to reviewed firearms, under Colt, it has the “Colt AR-15, CAR-15, and all imitations except Colt AR-15 Sporter H-BAR rifle” as “Banned: Enumerated in Statute”.
NY AR needs to be fixed mag, which can have all the evil features, since the non-detachable mag does not qualify as an “assault weapon.” Or, the rifle can be totally featureless, using the Thordsen stock or Spur Grip to get around the “pistol grip that hangs conspicuously beneath the receiver.”
And the M1 Garand will still be more powerful and “deadly”, while not being banned.
Well of course an M1 is more deadly.
To the requirements for MD, anything on the old federal AWB was restricted. It required a 7 day wait and a more comprehensive background check. After Sandyhook it went to a full ban (everything previously owned is grandfathered).
Mostly it is named stuff, but there is also a feature test. You can have one of either a flash suppressor, a folding stock or a grenade launcher. Not more than 1 feature. Also, any copy of a named banned item is also banned.
In this case the federal AWB had an exception for a COLT HBAR SPORTER because someone talking congress in to allowing them for target shooting and competition purposes back in the early 90s. Well, the AR-15 is banned by name, but because the COLT HBAR SPORTER is specifically allowed, any copies of it are allowed. Maryland State Police interpreted this to mean that any AR-15 marked heavy barrel or HBAR or marketed as such was a copy of the Colt HBAR Sporter. Thus it is legal.
The copy cat law, the weapon has to be 100% parts interchangeable. So piston AR-15’s are legal as they aren’t parts interchangeable with the AR-15 (which is technically a DI rifle). Also only .223/5.56 caliber AR-15s are banned, as a 6.5 Grendel AR isn’t parts interchangeable with an AR-15 (which is a .223/5.56 rifle). A .300 BO AR also isn’t (the barrel is different, good luck firing .223 out of a .300 BO).
Its stupid, but I’ll take stupid exceptions compared to comprehensive air tight infringements. One thing I can’t quite figure out is that all AK rifles are banned by name (literally it says “all AK rifles” as a banned item). The vz57 doesn’t fall under that as it isn’t an AK rifle and it isn’t 100% parts interchangeable. However, MD state police have been granting names exceptions to some AK74 rifles lately. Not sure I quite understand that one, but I suppose they might not be 100% parts interchangeable with an AK74 (ex, IIRC they recently approved the SLR104).
“FN Announces Two New Maryland-Compliant Rifles”
By making the “adjustments”, FN is just enable states like MD and NY to do as the please, my suggestion, just stop doing business in those states, ANY business, no LE business, etc…
When I see this opinion, I have to remind people they are stupid.
In case you haven’t noticed, one of the repeated themes of the gun grabbers is to prevent the creation of new gun owners and to marginalize and annoy existing gun owners until they stop being gun owners. This is so that they inevitably whittle down the number of motivated individuals with skin in the game.
Lets take the states with an assault weapons ban, CA, CT, HI, MD, MA, NJ, NY.
Lets say you abandon them. While it may be 130 pretty safe electoral votes, it is not 100% hard blue congressional reps. It’s not 100% hard blue local government. These prevent states getting worse and that spreading.
If they were to do something the answer is to make compliant SKUs for those markets, and then refuse to sell anything but that to LEOs and agencies there either.
The anti-gun groups combined with their lackeys in government, the civil service, and the media have been doing this in Australia since the Port-Arthur massacre. The end-result? We now have MORE licensed gun owners and privately held firearms than we did at the time of the massacre.
When I saw this article, I knew within a few comments that something like this would be written. What it boils down to is a gun owner living in a “free state” (for now, wait until the Dems control everything again) suggesting that firearms companies should raise a middle finger and abandon gun owners in states where liberals have wrested varying degrees of control. From a business perspective, it’d be incredibly dumb to not market a product that a demand exists for to attempt to make some sort of statement. From a second amendment advocate’s perspective, it’s craven and pathetic to suggest that the gun community should turn it’s back on gun owners living in blue states. Really it’s hard to articulate how stupid it is. You think that failing to market a product is going to send a message? That gun owners are going to rally and somehow outvote the urban liberals? Take a look at New York – upstate is as red as it gets, but NYC has over half the population of the state. The borough of Brooklyn alone has more people in it than the 2 most populous counties in upstate – Erie and Monroe, where Buffalo and Rochester are – combined. So companies should punish gun owners in those states because of that? Move to a free state, you say? Perfect. I can have a collapsible stock and a 30 round magazine at the cost of leaving all of my family and friends who I’d miss terribly. People pissing and whining about gun companies making compliant rifles need to get bent.
Okay, okay… we get it, people in slave states are still people too and they have money to spend.
…Still won’t stop those of us who live in Civil Rights states to feel kinda smug about it…
🤠
What’s to feel smug about? Not trying to use you as a punching bag, but what has any gun owner in a “civil rights” state done differently than a gun owner in a “slave state”? You vote for pro-gun candidates like us. You support the second amendment like us. The state you live in hasn’t been weighed down by a liberal anchor (yet). That’s literally the only difference. I’d argue people living behind enemy lines in blue states are probably doing more in terms of 2A advocacy. I have no way of proving it, but I bet we write more letters to representatives, make more phone calls, and donate more money. We’re in the thick of the fight, we don’t have a choice. I see gun owners on this site who are almost gleeful when anti-gun legislation passes in a blue state, because then they can condescend to those of us who are suffering under those laws and gloat, as if they have some type of power to influence the laws in their own state, other than voting. As if they are directly responsible for the way their state is run. As if they are “more gun” than people living on the other side of an imaginary line. I guess people like to feel superior to others, and gun owners (as evidenced here) are no different.
I really dont have a dog in this hunt…
Every one has to make a decision on where to live.
Decisions have consequences…
It’s never too late.. to fix a bad decision..
What we should petition FN to do is what Barrett has done. I can’t find the press release from years ago, but they have the following statement on the bottom of every web page:
“Barrett will not sell to or service any California or New York government agencies.“
This occurred after those states banned .50 cal. Their philosophy is that if the people can’t buy their products, neither will the government. There is NO reason to not produce a product the people can purchase. Why punish them?
Thanks for your support from a fellow gun owner. Some of us are still competing in high power, some are building compliant ARs, and there is still a demand from some of us for non-AR related gun products.
Put a cartoon blunderbuss muzzle device on it and name it “the demtard”
Yet another overpriced rifle.
Build your own.
Start with an 80% lower and you’re not even in “the system.”
Can you expound? What is an 80% lower, and how would it prevent being “in the system”?
Kudos for FN and any other manufacturer that is willing to modify their products for these communist states.. (and charge a premium).
People that live there have already decided that’s it’s worth paying a premium in taxes for the privilege of living there…, so one more “stupid person” tax should not matter..
Suggest the mfgrs use this added revenue stream to figure out how to lower their prices for the rest of us..;)
God Bless Texas (and the free world)!!
The rifles are nice, but, with MD’s piss-ant size, why can’t FNA sell us a 2A compliant Maryland?
IF
Civil war starts in . . .
oh, I don’t know. As soon as (D) blower Mueller pops his bs on Flynn. MD is gonna be a sh_t sponge.
I live in MD. Stupid laws. I go over to VA to get my 30 round mags. Possession is legal here. I have no 10 round mags. As for rifles, any ar without a cutout in the barrel, ie M4 cutout, is legal. And now that they removed them from the regulated list, it’s cash and carry. It used to be that AR’s, no matter, we’re regulated and required a 7 day wait. AR 10? Lol not even a single law prohibits them. Not as bad as it seems here. I build a bunch of midlength rifles so I never run into the “oh no, I can’t use this barrel because it has a cutout” problem. Maryland is so damn stupid it’s ridiculous. Democrats…
MD is a problem for me. Work wants me to relocate there. I’ve looked at driving from PA and VA and neither seem practical. How bad is it really? From what I read, all handguns need licenses and anything with more than 10 rounds is an “assault” thing, even pistols.
You have to have a HQL (Handgun Qualification Licence) to buy any handgun in MD. It is about 4 hours of training($20 to $100), plus $50 for “Livescan Fingerprints” and the cost of License ($50 still I think) Their are a few exemptions such as buying a legal handgun in MD before Oct.of 2013, Prior Military Service, Prior Law Enforcement. If you are exempt from training you still have to pay for your LiveScan fingerprints and the cost of the license. No gun 🔫, pistol 🔫 or long-gun can be purchased with a magazine of more than 10 rounds, though they are not illegal to possess. I usually have my rifle mags just sent to my parents in NC and pick them up when I visit.
Too bad most gun owners are clueless when it comes to Maryland gun laws,
They see 10-round limit and AWB and automatically assume they are California or New York. The only thing they have over Maryland is the chance to carry if they live in a rural county.
Otherwise Maryland beats them possession-wise in what can be owned.
Also FN can add a regular flash suppressor since it is only one part and collapsible stocks don’t count as folding stocks especially on an AR.
“That means there will be a market for Maryland-compliant AR’s.”
will be? there’s been a market since the law went into effect 4 years ago.
Is a standard 30 round magazine compatible in ban state rifles or are the magazines somehow different?
I’m sure the 1% or so of people bent on using a rifle to commit homicides don’t really care too much if 30 round magazines aren’t supplied with the gun from the factory.
30 round mags work fine in MD compliant rifles.
You know FN could just add a heavy barrel profile with a flash suppressor and it would still be legal.
Better than the other retard company posted here awhile back neutering it beyond what Maryland asked of it.
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