FN FiveseveN Forums - Clarification of civilian-legal "Tactical" Five-seveNs

Posted by fivesevenshooter:

FN FiveseveN Forums - Clarification of civilian-legal "Tactical" Five-seveNs: "Hi, I'm new to the board and really like what you guys have done with the place

I actually joined up here with the intent of selling my Five-seveN...little did I know what kind of mess I was getting into! My pistol happens to be a 'Tactical' model (quotes intentional), and it seems after reading the archives here that there's a little confusion regarding exactly what the heck a civilian-legal Tactical is.

When FN first started importing the Tactical/DAO pistols into the US, the ATF restricted them to military/law enforcement only. This meant that no matter what, even though the Five-seveN amounts to basically a semi-auto pistol, civilians couldn't own them. This was for a couple reasons. Firstly, the only mags produced by FN were of 20 round capacity. This was at the time of the magazine ban, so that was one limiting factor. Also, the ATF had some misgivings regarding the 5.7x28mm load. When they saw the Five-seveN, they saw a semi-auto pistol with 20 rounds of armor-piercing ammunition and no mag safety. In short, not something they really wanted to hit the streets. Hence the decision for the Tactical's military/law enforcement only status.

Eventually, FN started seeing a demand from law enforcement officers who wanted to buy personal weapons. This resulted in the development of the I.O.M. (Individual Officer Model). The plan was to allow law enforcement officers to purchase new I.O.M.s, provided they show proof of their officer status (essentially signing a little affidavit-like document).

When FN was going through the IOM approval process, the IOM as we know it did not exist. To get this through ATF and provide preliminary samples to reps, FN took several Tactical Five-seveNs, modified their 20-round m"