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I heard that Michigan law on owning and possessing machine guns changed recently. Can a Michigan resident own a machine gun now?

April 26, 2017changed Guns heard Law Machine Michigan owning possessing resident

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I heard that Michigan law on owning and possessing machine guns changed recently. Can a Michigan resident own a machine gun now?

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What you heard about is a recent Attorney General Opinion (#7183) issued in December of 2005. It reversed and superceded an earlier, longstanding Attorney General Opinion (#5210 1977-78). Both opinions interpret MCL 750.224 which prohibits possession of machine guns except for those licensed to possess them. The old Attorney General Opinion reached the conclusion that a private citizen could not possess a machine gun because Michigan does not have any provisions for licensing them. The new Attorney General Opinion states that the Federal approval process for ownership and transfer of machine guns is a license under the statute and therefore, a Michigan resident can possess a machine gun as long as it is lawfully possessed under federal law. Generally, this means the machine gun was properly registered before May 19, 1986 and was lawfully possessed on that date or lawfully transferred after that date.