That's extremely odd. As far as I know nothing has changed there and both ExDDs and LBDDs are legal.

That law applies only to the commission of a crime if such weapons were involved. Absurd how much the ATF just phones it in and errs on the side of everything being illegal.

Same here in PA and I'm a FFL 10 (Manufacturer of Destructive Devices).

Ha yep, they are doing that currently
Im meeting with my (SD) legislators here soon to discuss fixing it legally
My interim solution was to get an explosives manufacturer permit
DM me your phone number if you'd be so kind and we can tackle this one together if you would like.

SD codified law:
Defining a Destructive Device
(13) “Destructive device,”
(a) Any bomb, grenade, explosive missile, or similar device or any launching device therefor; or

and

S. D. Codified Laws § 22-1-2.
Any person who possesses any substance, material, or any combination of substances or materials, with intent to make a destructive device without first obtaining a permit from Department of Public Safety to make said device is guilty of a Felony. § 22-14A-13.  
Further investigation of the SD codified laws leads to
22-14A-21. Possession of registered or licensed destructive devices permitted.
Any person may possess destructive devices that are registered with, or licensed by, the state or federal government pursuant to law.


Clearly the law is to stop people from making pipebombs/charge them before they injure people with them. But evidently the atf interpretation of the chickenbones  means no DDs for the time being.

Can you ask the department of public safety for a permit?

Rewind to February when I sent in a F1 for a DD. ATF sat on it for 3mo and then said "Great its approved but, now can you send your permit?" to which I was as confused as OP to lol. After researching, turns out there is no such thing in SD as a "Destructive Device Permit" and they arent issued. Told my examiner this and tried to argue that the law is clearly in a criminal scope and not an outright prohibition, but alas they told me to get bent.

So that started me on this journey:
Within DPS, the fire marshal's office handles explosives permitting. This is because he is required by law to distribute magazine locations to fire departments in the state in the name of public safety. Now traditionally these permits 1:1 mirror your ATF FEL, obviously you dont need one for a F1 or 5320.20 for "launcher type" DDs. After talking to the fire marshal who was super understanding, he said no problem on his end and he would issue a permit with zero provisions for a magazine for this specific use case. If I had a good spot for a magazine I would have just went full send and grabbed a FEL at the same time. The permit is free and basically an abbreviated 4473, I sent in for mine a month or so ago after discussing the issue with him.  Still waiting for it to kick back.

The irony is that in 2018 I moved here and 5320.20'd 1% of the total DDs in the state here without a care in the world.
I can see them being dicks about the form 1 but the 5320.20 is totally wrong interpretation of state law in my not a lawyer opinion. I say this because;
22-14A-21. Possession of registered or licensed destructive devices permitted.
Any person may possess destructive devices that are registered with, or licensed by, the state or federal government pursuant to law.
5320.20 is pretty damn registered/licensed by the federal government pursuant to law. But ATF reads the two earlier sections of the law and then straight up stopped which is wholesale wrong.

Look at the silver lining. This sort of combing through unenforced State laws by the ATF will lead to said States being pushed to clean up outdated/unenforced laws.

...or not. Wisconsin was a soup sandwich with a conservative majority. Now it has a dem gov and dem Supreme Court. If laws are changed, it won't be for the better.

Fair point. I prefer to stay positive - especially with the direction a lot of the country is going as far as firearms ownership and interest in NFA.

SD is still on a freedom trend, so there's that.

That being said, laws are influenced things like the Sturgis Rally, e.g. you can't legally carry firearms on a motorcylce in this "constitutional carry" state.

SD is the only state out of the dozen ive lived in where everytime I make the dreaded call to deal with some facet of govt BS revolving around firearms (tax, zoning, licensing, etc ) everyone involved is very happy to help and chocks up the federal BS to oversight. Very refreshing to have humans and not assholes in govt for the most part.



Not to get too far off topic but WI and most of the midwest was always "soft red" in the case that it was mostly RINOs trying to fill their own bank accounts, SD had the same stuff up until our current governor. Daugaard dropping constitutional carry because "we arent ready for it" ? Get out of town with that BS, Noem signed it as her first law and the SD freedom caucus is pressing hard to make this place a bastion of freedom/right aligned views.

I knew you weren't in SD if you were filing a form 20 - but I didn't know where you were. Sorry to hear that WI isn't doing so well! I hope that isn't the case going forward.



Stay on them about it. Based on my past experience with the NFA branch it'll likely go untouched if you don't. Be polite of course - but be that proverbial squeaky wheel!

You certainly can carry on a motorcycle. That was changed some years ago.

Cross posting this from the SD Hometown thread:
Update on this: Fire Marshal (His office handles explosives permitting) is now working with ATF trying to get to bottom of this. He apologized for delay on it, it was from the state legal end. He looked as far back as records showed and there is zero history of issuing of "DD permits" in SD and his office is not equipped to issue them. I wont speak for him but overall the feeling I got was that he has little interest in blocking DDs or handling licensing.

All this with a promise of an update later this week hopefully.