Look sunshine, by the way the word is drivel, not dribble, a state can designate what firearms are legal and the law can dictate what a firearm must be to be legal in that state. Don't try to blow smoke up my keister, I used to write some of those definitions both for law and regulation. I have not confused anything, definitions of legal weapons are in both regulations and in the law for use in hunting. You would be better served not trying to tell someone who was involved in setting regulations and law what the states can and cannot do. You may know a lot about firearms, no doubt about that, however, you know little about the laws governing hunting in individual states.


For example, to be legal for the flintlock muzzle loader season in PA a firearm had to have a flintlock ignition system described by the following regulation: 1) Permitted devices. It is lawful to hunt deer during the flintlock muzzleloading deer season with a flintlock muzzleloading firearm. The firearm must be an original or similar reproduction of muzzleloading firearm manufactured prior to 1800. The firearm’s ignition mechanism must consist of a hammer containing a naturally occurring stone that is spring propelled onto an iron or steel frizzen which, in turn, creates sparks to ignite a priming powder. The firearm must have open sights and be a .44 caliber or larger single-barrel long gun or a .50 caliber or larger single-barrel handgun that propels single-projectile ammunition.

(2) Prohibitions. While hunting deer during the flintlock muzzleloading deer season, it is unlawful to:

(i) Use manmade materials attached to the hammer or frizzen to create sparks.


A state can describe the qualifications of a firearm that is legal to use in a particular season, regardless of what the federal law calls the firearm. The feds have no athority to tell the states what is legal and illegal in a state to use for hunting purposes. A flintlock is not necessarily a legal flintlock and a muzzleloader is not necessarily a legal muzzleloader to hunt with in a particular state. This is one example. The long reach of the federal government does not extend to telling the states what firearm they must allow to be used for hunting in a particular state. If a state decides that the 24 ga. so called shotgun with a rifled barrel shooting a metal cartridge loaded with a bullet and not a rifled slug, metal or plactic hull, does not meet their definition of a legal weapon in their shotgun only areas, they have every legal right to do so. While the feds have the authority to define what is a shotgun, handgun or rifle for the purposes of buying and selling firearms, they don't get to tell individual states what they must allow for hunting in their state, unless the hunting is for a federally protected animal or bird, other than that it is a matter of states rights. You are confused, between sale of or the changing of hands of firearms with state hunting laws. Two entirely different animals!