Buying used AR lower - can it become a pistol?f

[GoldGunsGirls]

I am looking at buying a used lower from an out-of-state seller and having it shipped to my FFL. Can I build it into a pistol? Full story as follows: it has the FCG installed but no stock or buffer tube installed. The sale is for the lower and a pile of parts including a stock, so there will be a stock in the box though. I am assuming my FFL will transfer is as an "O" ("Other"). Am I then free to build it into a pistol?

The current owner tells me he bought it used as a stripped lower. And the prior owner, who bought it new, also bought it as a stripped lower. Of course, I have no way of definitively verifying this information.

So would building this lower be:

• lawful
• not lawful
• "probably lawful but in a murky gray area and doing so will assume some small but definite level of risk"

 

[Dowtom]

A lower does not become a rifle or pistol until the upper is attached. Make sure your FFL transfer it as a receiver/other and you're good to go either direction

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[GoldGunsGirls]

A lower does not become a rifle or pistol until the upper is attached. Make sure your FFL transfer it as a receiver and you're good to go either direction

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That's what I thought too, but there is a possibility that the lower has been a rifle at some point in its life. If one of the prior owners had purchased/transferred it as a rifle, does the classification "reset" when it transfers to me? Or is there a "Once a rifle, always a rifle" rule?

 

[Dowtom]

Seeing as there is no registration on long guns in 99% of the country I would lean to say you're fine as long as it's transferred to you under other/receiver

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[Rab1515]

I am looking at buying a used lower from an out-of-state seller and having it shipped to my FFL. Can I build it into a pistol? Full story as follows: it has the FCG installed but no stock or buffer tube installed. The sale is for the lower and a pile of parts including a stock, so there will be a stock in the box though. I am assuming my FFL will transfer is as an "O" ("Other"). Am I then free to build it into a pistol?

The current owner tells me he bought it used as a stripped lower. And the prior owner, who bought it new, also bought it as a stripped lower. Of course, I have no way of definitively verifying this information.

So would building this lower be:

• lawful
• not lawful
• "probably lawful but in a murky gray area and doing so will assume some small but definite level of risk"

Once a lower has an upper attached it becomes a riifle or a pistol, depending on whether it has a stock or not. A pistol can be reconfigured into a rifle legally, but a rifle can never become a pistol. So as long as the lower is a pistol or still an other you are good to go to build in any legal configeration.

 

[mopar92]

Unless this is a $5 lower you're buying from Cousin Freddy because his wife is leaving him is it really worth the hastle and time to try and get this squared away?

Federal law for laymen is as follows.
Once a rifle, always a rifle. A rifle has a barrel with an OAL of 16" and a buttstock.

If it has been assembled as a rifle (functional or not, fired or not) it CANNOT LEGALLY be built as a pistol.

Now where it becomes hazardous. Cousin Freddy "built" the rifle to show Aunt Wilma his new "a'solt riffle wiff hi capasitee clips" and posted the picher on the Book of Faces. You buy the lower and build it as a pistol. You having done your due diligence and attempting to find the configuration find nothing because you're not friends with Cousin Freddy or Aunt Wilma on the Book of Faces. So you build it as a pistol. Unknowingly you've committed a felony. A year goes by and during a traffic stop or because a nosy neighbor calls the puhleece, because they saw you take out a "sho nuff asholt riffle" out of your house. And now you're trying to find a lawyer who is knowledgeble, honest and fairly priced to represent you.

Is a $100 piece of aluminum worth all that trouble?

 

[Biggfoot44]

In the OP's format, answer is #4 - Probably illegal, gray as f$!# in best case scenario , and impossible to defend yourself legally .

( Essentially what Mopar said )
Too many $59 and less virgin Lowers available to try what you described . If the price of the used lower is irresistible , use it for an HBAR or SBR . Buy a known Virgin for your Pistol projects.

 

[tigmaned]

if you want to make it a pistol I wouldn't mess with the used one... stripped AR lowers (right now) anyway are cheap... go buy one from a IP FFL here and fill out all the paperwork like buying a handgun in MD along with the sill 7 day wait... and you can make it what you want.. funny part you don't need a HQL for this??

Gym Ratz is selling Anderson's for $60 bucks.

 

[outrider58]

Better safe than sorry. Especially after opening this thread.

 

[pilotguy299]

unless you are sure that it has never been built in any configuration, or that it's first configuration was a pistol, I personally would not wander in to that territory. I'd also want to be able to check and see how it was transferred.

safest is to just buy a new lower and make sure the FFL transfers it to you as an other. Especially since the one you are talking about has TWO prior owners.