May 28, 1963


Browning Industries, Inc
Ogden, Utah

Gentlemen:

This refers to the FN Browning light rifle, caliber 7.62mm, which
you have been importing into the United States.

As explained to Messrs. Richard L. Ecckstead and John Val Browning
of your organization by telephone on May 19, 1963, this Division
has been conducting exhaustive studies of a number of weapons
during the past several months.  Our area of consideration concerns
any weapon which shoots, or is designed to shoot, automatically or
semiautomatically, more than one shot, without manual reloading, by
a single function of the trigger, and which has been slightly
altered to prevent the use of the full automatic capabilities. 
Messrs. Oscar P. Neal and Thurman W. Darr of this Division
explained during the phone call referred to above that your weapon
which has been modified from the fully automatic model and imported
under the authority of our ruling to you dated April 3, 1961, was
about to be classified as coming within the jurisdiction of the
National Firearms Act.

It is the opinion of this office that the FN Browning light rifle
is a machine gun as defined in Section 5848(2) of the National
Firearms Act.  This definition may be found on page 5 and 6 of
Publication No. 364 (a reprint of the National and Federal Firearms
Acts), which we enclose for your information.  Our ruling to you
dated April 3, 1961, which was concerned with our classification of
your FN Browning light rifle is hereby revoked.

Any future importation of this weapon must be effected under the
authority of a Form 6 (Firearms) which has been approved by this
Division.  We are advising the Office of Munitions Control,
Department of State, and our San Francisco regional office of our
ruling.

                              - 2 -

We are returning the FN Browning rifle bearing serial number G3084
to your St. Louis, Missouri office and are retaining the weapon
bearing serial number G493 per the authority of Mr. Browning for
reference purposes.  We appreciate your cooperation in this matter
and also thank you for making the exhibits available for study and
evaluation.

                                   Very truly yours,

                                   [signed]
                                   Dwight E. Avis
                    Director, Alcohol, and Tobacco Tax Division

Enclosure