fkleinbu Wrote:If it is a rilfe (that is sold as a "rifle" on the ATF form) it is always a rifle, regardless of how short a barrel is placed upon it.. To legally put a barrel shorter than 16.1 inches (and I add the .1 inches to be on the safe side) it must be registered as a SBR.. Once registered as an SBR, it forever is an SBR regardless if a barrel 16.1" or longer is later installed..
However if the lower was sold as a "Pistol" or "Other" on the ATF form, you are pretty much free to do with it as you wish as long as you never install a rear stock and a barrel shorter than 16.1 inches, unless getting the required NFA stamp as a SBR.. If you do it then becomes a SBR and for ever more is an SBR requiring the stamp and all of the paper work..
If it was sold as a "Pistol" or "other" and you don't have a rear stock, you can install any length of barrel.. There are no legal limitations what so ever - though technical limitations do exist..
flk k
1. An SBR can be "de-registered" by simply notifying the ATF, so an SBR is not always an SBR.
2. The ATF ruling is fairly clear, a pistol and rifle can go back and forth - "Merely assembling and disassembling such a rifle does not result in the making of a new weapon; rather, it is the same rifle in a knockdown condition (i.e., complete as to all component parts). Likewise, because it is the same weapon when reconfigured as a pistol, no “weapon made from a rifle” subject to the NFA has been made."
As long as a barrel less than 16" on an AR-15 (which is a re-configurable firearm), it had better not have a stock or vertical fore grip on it unless it is registered as SBR. But you can swap between rifle/pistol on an AR-15 all day long as long as "you don't make a new firearm" by configuring it as a SBR.
3. Read the Thompson ruling again. It basically says firearms that can be configured both as a pistol and rifle can go back and forth (as long as components for both rifle and pistol are present)...in favor of the defendant. - "In United States v. Thompson/Center Arms Company, 504 U.S. 505 (1992), the United States Supreme Court examined whether a short-barreled rifle was “made” under the NFA when a carbine-conversion kit consisting of a single-shot “Contender” pistol was designed so that its handle and barrel could be removed from its receiver, and was packaged with a 21-inch barrel, a rifle stock, and a wooden fore-end. The Court held that, where aggregated parts could convert a pistol into either a regulated short-barreled rifle, or an unregulated rifle with a barrel of 16 inches or more in length, the NFA was ambiguous and applied the “rule of lenity” (i.e., ambiguities in criminal statutes should be resolved in favor of the defendant) so that the pistol and carbine kit, when packaged together, were not considered a “short-barreled rifle” for purposes of the NFA."
4. The SCOTUS also ruled that if only parts were present that would convert a rifle into SBR, then intent is present to make a SBR. - "However, the Court also explained that an NFA firearm is made if aggregated parts are in close proximity such that they: (a) serve no useful purpose other than to make an NFA firearm (e.g., a receiver, an attachable shoulder stock, and a short barrel); or (b) convert acomplete weapon into an NFA firearm (e.g., a pistol and attachable shoulder stock, or a long-barreled rifle and attachable short barrel). Id. at 511-13."
The real issue is if you intend on making a pistol, then you better have the pistol components before you ever buy the short barrel (if you have rifles about). Having a short barrel without pistol components is intent to make an SBR.
Likewise, if you only have a pistol but also have an attachable shoulder stock nearby, then that is intent to make an SBR.