South Dakota prohibits any person from knowingly possessing a machine gun, except any person who:

• Is a law enforcement officer or member of the armed forces of the U.S. or South Dakota National Guard acting in the lawful discharge of duties;
• Possesses the gun briefly after having found it or taken it from an offender; or
• Has a valid state or federal license issued pursuant to law for the machine gun or has registered the gun with the proper state or federal authority pursuant to law.¹

Federal law requires machine guns to be registered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF), and generally prohibits the transfer or possession of machine guns manufactured after May 19, 1986.²

 See our Machine Guns policy summary for a comprehensive discussion of this issue. 

1. S.D. Codified Laws § 22-14-6. “Controlled weapon” includes any machine gun. S.D. Codified Laws § 22-1-2(8). “Machine gun” means “any firearm, whatever its size and usual designation, that automatically discharges two or more cartridges by a single function of the firing device.” S.D. Codified Laws § 22-1-2(23).[↩]
2. 18 U.S.C. § 922(o); 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d).[↩]