practical question for state university

[Meche_03]

I'm going to school full time to finish a PhD in Explosives Engineering. At this time there are no courses taught related to firearms, gunpowder, reloading, or suppressors. Several of us graduate students are very interested in suppressors and reloading. As gunpowder and firearm use is the most common "explosive" one can get and use in the US we have started discussing the idea of creating a course with a professor. The university does not have an ATF license for high explosives because they are a state inity and are exempt.

So the question is, "Is the campus, the State University, exempt from the Nations Firearms Act of 34 and subsequent modifications/laws because it is an intity of the state? Are they required to be a Class-II manufacturer (a FFL holder licensed to manufacture firearms or Type-07 license that has paid a Special Occupational Tax Stamp or SOT) ?

In time there would be the possibility of making, modifying, and testing suppressors for research purposes and I'm wanting to help get the information gathered to make it happen.

[skierjt]

I had this same question back when I was in a physics class.. Just scrapped the idea because I doubt any class would be exempt. Worth asking though!

[AlabamaPaul]

Email [email protected] and ask for direction...

[GHEN]

...and as a PhD candidate you should probably know it is "entity", not ""inity" or "intity".

GHEN

[Meche_03]

As it has been pointed out, it is a typo. I posted from an Android device and I failed to correct the auto correct before posting.

As this is not a published journal article I did not proofread the message before it was posted. A thousand apologies. Now, is there any information related to the original topic or relative importance?

[GHEN]

I imagine you could submit a Form 1 as "Tax Exempt because firearm is being made by or on behalf of any State or possession of the United States, or any political subdivison thereof, or any official police organization of such a government entity engaged in criminal investigations."

State entities are not exempt from the NFA, just from paying the taxes and from the restrictions under "FOPA" for machine guns but not (AFAIK) for suppressor parts.

GHEN