Rev. Rul. 54-492

Advice is requested whether a blunderbuss with a barrel of less than 18 inches in length is a firearm (shotgun) under the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.

Section 5848(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 provides in part that the term `firearm' means a shotgun or rifle having a barrel of less than 18 inches in length, or any other weapon, except a pistol or revolver, from which a shot is discharged by an explosive if such weapon is capable of being concealed on the person.

The question here involved is whether the blunderbuss could be classified as a shotgun as included in the above definition. Section 5848(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 and section 319.28a of Regulations 88, as added by Treasury Decision 6094, page 44, this Bulletin, define a shotgun as a weapon designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder and designed and made to use the energy of the explosive in a fixed shotgun shell to fire through a smooth bore either a number of ball shot or a single projectile for each single pull of the trigger. Since the blunderbuss is not capable of firing fixed ammunition, it is not a firearm under section 5848 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.