Elkins45
Member
SNIP
Dealers who knowingly transfer a firearm frame or receiver as a "long gun" are committing a violation of federal law. Not just that, but they are stupid, stupid, stupid for not reading the instruction printed in every Form 4473. Read: https://www.atf.gov/firearms/qa/may...eiver-unlicensed-individual-who-less-21-years
One doesn't need to be a lawyer to know you are wrong. So wrong you will be embarrassed after some reading.
An "assembled lower" whether with a pistol grip and pistol buffer.........is just a firearm receiver until a barreled upper is attached. Same with an assembled lower with shoulder stock.....just a receiver until completely assembled as a rifle.
Start with "Meaning of Terms": https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-i...&tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title27/27cfr478_main_02.tpl
Well, being that that's been the guidance from ATF for over a decade you think every dealer would know. Again, even if the dealer erroneously checks handgun or long gun instead of other firearm.......that doesn't change what the firearm actually is. No more so than if he checked "Long gun" on a Colt Python doesn't make that Python a rifle or shotgun.
One just did.
When in doubt, read the instructions to Question 24 on page 5 of the 4473. And again, a completed lower DOES NOT have the "defining characteristics" of a long gun or handgun.
Everything you said is true but it doesn’t mention a possible pitfall that might be lurking. Suppose Joe Schmoe walks into Marty’s gun shop and trades his used AR lower for something. To everyone in the room it looks like a lower, but unbeknownst to Marty that receiver was first assembled as a rifle. Legally it can never be assembled as a pistol, so even though it looks like a receiver it is de jure a rifle. If Marty checks “receiver” on the 4473 he’s technically incorrect and if Billy Bob buys it and builds a pistol he’s unknowingly broken the (stupid) law.
I have no idea if anyone has ever ended up in the jackpot because of this, but it is technically a possibility. So I guess if you ever buy a used AR lower you should only use it to build a rifle.