Restricted weapon accessories

I have been reading a good deal about some of the latest optics for weapons. Quite often I see restricted for sale to military, government or law enforcement. Is this restriction a company restriction or is there some legal restriction of many of these items, such as night vision, thermal imaging or certain red dot optics?? The same for other items like body armor and tasers.

If there are such laws, where are they coming from? Who and how can they regulate what non-weapon devices a company can sell to private US citizens?

Originally posted by Wolf321
I have been reading a good deal about some of the latest optics for weapons. Quite often I see restricted for sale to military, government or law enforcement. Is this restriction a company restriction or is there some legal restriction of many of these items, such as night vision, thermal imaging or certain red dot optics?? The same for other items like body armor and tasers.

If there are such laws, where are they coming from? Who and how can they regulate what non-weapon devices a company can sell to private US citizens?

Usually restrictions are placed on Optics due to a government contract. Meaning they get all sights or devices made until the contract is satisfied. At that point, you'll start seeing them turn up on the market.

Lots of good commercial available Tacti-cool optics out there though already. Everything from Red Dots to Thermals.

Personally, I like the Elcan SpecterDR Optical Sights, with the .308 BDC, though it is pricey.

Trijicon makes a good tactical sight with BDC as well and are also expensive. And IMO, while a ok site they just are not worth the price.

What get what ya pay for.

You can not have a weapons mounted night vision scope that can be mounted on a rifle.

Don't try to look it up in the weapons laws or criminal codes.
Its in the fish and game laws.

They got a AN-PVS2 starlite scope from me under this hidden law.
Its classed as a IR scope even though the law said nothing about night vision or starlight.
They never charged me for having it or arrested me they just took it.
and i was only using it for security work. and did not have it mounted on a weapon.

In the state next door Nevada they have night vision shooting matches.

reply to post by ANNED


What state do you live in? (I'm thinking California)

That strikes me as some pretty hinky stuff if they confiscated your device. The PVS-2 is pretty old by todays standards and a dime a dozen on the market (usually refurbished).

I'd contact a lawyer.

reply to post by Wolf321


Here is a site that has a multitude of Optical options. That gives you the specs as well.

swfa.com...

You may find cheaper prices at one the auction sites like gunbrokers however.

There are restrictions the industry has placed onto itself. Also when you order from some co.'s they require you to sign a non export form. As far as a great price on alot of dif set ups ATN corp I think has some of the best. I have never had a problem ordering from them. ATN

IR laser designators have the same thing but a little more tight. A civilian can't directly order from a distributer but a civilian can posses such a item.
Cali its illegal to have a weapon mounted nightvision device. All you cali folks need to read this CA GUN LAWS

night vision scope law link

Sniperscopes 468. Any person who knowingly buys, sells, receives, disposes of, conceals, or has in his possession a sniperscope shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000) or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment. As used in this section, sniperscope means any attachment, device or similar contrivance designed for or adaptable to use on a firearm which, through the use of a projected infrared light source and electronic telescope, enables the operator thereof to visually determine and locate the presence of objects during the nighttime. This section shall not prohibit the authorized use or possession of such sniperscope by a member of the armed forces of the United States or by police officers, peace officers, or law enforcement officers authorized by the properly constituted authorities for the enforcement of law or ordinances; nor shall this section prohibit the use or possession of such sniperscope when used solely for scientific research or educational purposes.

So if you had it mounted on a camera set up in line. It would have been legit. Last line in the regulation. B/C you could be bird watching/photo shooting..

The newest night vision and thermal scopes designed for military use are not available to the public for a good reason. If they were, you pretty much guarantee that the technology would be making it's way to China and a handful of other countries to undergo reverse engineering.

Then you no longer have the advantage on the battlefield.

reply to post by allenidaho


I can see them using that excuse, but in all reality, if someone in or out of the military wanted to get such technology to any potential national enemy of the US, it would be done regardless of such regulations.

LEO's can get most anything that is available to the military. There are plenty of corrupt cops around that could easily be bought off to be a straw man for a single piece. The same for any major crime organization, who may already have insiders in LE.

It seems more realistic that they want to keep such technology away from the regular citizenry.

I could understand a restriction on outside sales until a contract for a quota is met, but other than that, it seems more about power and control.

Originally posted by allenidaho
The newest night vision and thermal scopes designed for military use are not available to the public for a good reason. If they were, you pretty much guarantee that the technology would be making it's way to China and a handful of other countries to undergo reverse engineering.

Then you no longer have the advantage on the battlefield.

Maybe in your state/country. Here we've finally got a "affordable" thermal option now.

www.readymaderesources.com...

Read down at bottom it talks about applicable laws from dept. of state about exporting outside US.

Oh you can pretty much have what you can afford. you can buy thermal weapon scopes and nigh vision scopes, they just don't want you taking any of it out of the US but that's a given.
they sell the stuff on ebay and if you must you can drive out of state where its legal to purchase and buy at gun shows or gun shops that carry them. i mean crap , if you can legally buy a gun, then you can legally buy a machine gun, which then you can buy a suppressor, and top it off with a thermal scope.....SERIOUSLY

Restricting them to keep china from getting one to reverse engineer them is now bogus because of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Do you really thing china would not put the word of that they would pay in money or weapon for this equipment to al qaeda and the taliban.
They do industrial espionage trying to get many secrets in the US and have hacker trying to break into US computers 24/7/365 days a year just for this

They just dont want any idiot able to go and buy the good stuff. Anything brand new might not be available but most things can be bought if you have enough money to get the licenses and do the paper work, but if you cant afford to get that done you cant afford these toys anyway.

There are no legal federal restrictions with exception of contract restrictions. They will make it on the market eventually. State laws on optics vary. You can have pretty much anything here in NV. But some states restrict the use of certain optical equipment.

a reply to: ANNED

That's not actually true... Maybe in your state but federally this is completely untrue. Otherwise texas night vision feral pig hunting wouldn't exist nor would the entire PLETHORA of commercial nv and thermal weapons sights.

Sorry, but no.

a reply to: A-Dub

Lol... The licenses... Really?

Which licenses would these be again?

Hint: you're spreading utter bs and you just got caught.

a reply to: allenidaho

Hmm... So tnvc.com doesn't exist and you totally can't order an-pvs 30's or even the revision quad tubes if you can afford them... Good to know.

a reply to: Wolf321

They can't and don't, it's just the reality of open ended IDIQ contracts with DOD. (Indefinite delivery indefinite quantity) many times they physically cannot manufacture any of an item for the commercial markets because they're literally 5 years of production out from just delivering to DOD etc what they've already committed to buy.

There's also some freedom hating rat bastard companies that unilaterally decide f*** the commercial market and just sell to LEO etc in order to schedule production years ahead of time.

Basically, the industry sucks hard right now rather than the gov impeding you.