I thought that once you made a pistol a rifle it was forever a rifle, even if you swapped parts around. Did I miss something on that lecture?
According the the Supreme Court of the United States you can freely use your firearm as decided in the Thompson case.
The Supreme Court of the United States acknowledged that the usefulness of a contender pistol with rifle conversion parts was to have both a pistol and a rifle, not just convert it one time:
The packaging of pistol and kit has an obvious utility for those who want both a pistol and a regular rifle,
They clearly acknowledge thier understanding of the issue. That they were deciding on the legal standing of an item that would be used as
both a pistol and a rifle at different times. That is the "obvious utility" of having "both" which share the same reciever.
So when making thier decision they were of the understanding the decision was regarding an item that would be used as both a pistol and a rifle at different times.
The ATF can be stubborn though.
The ATF can have different opinions. I have heard a couple of them. Sometimes they choose to say the issue was so narrow as to only be applying to that particular firearm made by that particular company, rather than case law for all similar situations.
Clearly the way our system works that is wrong. If a contender pistol can legaly have a 16+ inch barrel attached, and then a buttstock, then something like an AR or AK pistol would be no different under the decision.
If the Court acknowledged the "utility" of being able to have "both" pistol and rifle then they meant for you to be able to change them back and forth as long as they were assembled into something that is not an NFA item.
So the ATF is clearly wrong on the issue. However understandably few want to openly defy or challenge the ATF.
So according the the Supreme Court decion you can enjoy the 'utility' of 'both' the rifle and pistol after starting with a pistol and then converting your pistol.
According to one of the ATF statements you cannot.
Haven't bought one yet, but can I request any stripped lower to be sold as a pistol?
Last week, yes. This week, no. A dealer used to have to classify the type of firearm being sold as either a hand gun or a long gun. People could buy stripped receivers and ask the dealer to sell them as hand guns.
Starting on the 15th of this month, there is now a 3rd option for stripped receivers, so that is how your dealer will mark them down.
Very scary. This sounds like thier way of more clearly getting around the Supreme Court decision in the Thompson case.
It allows the BATFE to argue that whatever it was originaly turned into is what it legaly is, rather than what it officialy is on paper. So they could have created more standing that once a rifle or pistol always a rifle or pistol by adding a third option to confuse the legality of the issue.
So rather than purchasing the lower as a pistol, which under Thompson would give you great freedom, you purchase it as a third option.
The ATF can then in court argue you purchased it as the third option, created a rifle, and then any change to a pistol from there was illegal.
So if possible it would still be better under the Thompson ruling to have it as officialy a "pistol" (which of course requires someone to be 21 to purchase from an FFL and to comply with handgun laws rather than rifle laws.)
Of course according to the ATF it makes no difference as they already officialy stated that as thier position in defiance of the Thompson case even regarding pistols.
The only difference is if a lawyer is referencing the Thompson case while dealing with a pistol if someone did end up in court facing the ATF. The Thompson case applies to something that was originaly a pistol, and is converted to a rifle and back to a pistol giving the
utility of
both. Rather than a third option, which the ATF can claim was aways a rifle, so not subject to the Thompson ruling.
