SBR\AR pistol difference?

[Oregunner]

The attached photo is a rifle pistol that I want to buy. It has an 8 inch barrel but no shoulder stock and I was wondering if it's an SBR. If it's not considered an SBR is that because it has no shoulder stock?

 

[MJD]

To my knowledge of NFA laws, your interpretation is correct.

 

[Sam1911]

If it has no shoulder stock and is under 26" long, it is a handgun.

If it has no shoulder stock and is over 26" long, it transfers as an "Other Firearm."

It is not an SBR or any other NFA-regulated "Firearm."*







* (...unless you shoulder it, maybe, but that's an argument for down the road.)

 

[Oregunner]

If I added a brace to it would it then be considered an SBR? What about a suppressor?

 

[HRnightmare]

suppressor does not change it to an SBR, still a pistol.

 

[CoRoMo]

If I added a brace to it would it then be considered an SBR?

Excellent question.

I guess the answer is going to depend on the reason why you would want to add a brace to the AR pistol. And of course, how you use that brace will affect this answer as well.

 

[strambo]

If you add a brace and use the brace as designed no issue. If you add a brace and use it as a stock...according to the latest ATF interpretation letter (which reverses a previous letter), could be a big issue. Except, ATF letters aren't laws, just a bureaucrat's opinion at the time, so it is a legal grey area and would have to go to court to be solidified one way or another...if someone added a "brace", used it as a "stock" and was charged for violating the NFA.

Personally, I just sent in the $200 for an SBR to avoid the whole brace mess.

 

[Oregunner]

Thanks all! I'm all caught up now.

 

[Sam1911]

One more point you might want to know.

A popular accessory for carbines is a vertical forward grip like this:



DON'T PUT ANY OF THOSE VERTICAL GRIPS ON THAT GUN!

That is still a handgun, under federal law, and adding a vertical forward grip to it would be a violation of the National Firearms Act of 1934, which is a big deal.

If you have a rifle, or make that into a registered Short Barreled Rifle, then you can add that grip.


Just thought I'd mention it.

 

[crazysccrmd]

I'm still trying to figure out how a pistol with a VFG can be an AOW as defined by the NFA.

The term “Any Other Weapon” means:

Any weapon or device capable of being concealed on the person from which a shot can be discharged through the energy of an explosive; Yes

A pistol or revolver having a barrel with a smooth bore designed or redesigned to fire a fixed shotgun shell; No

Weapons with combination shotgun and rifle barrels 12 inches or more, less than 18 inches in length, from which only a single discharge can be made from either barrel without manual reloading; and No

Any such weapon which may be readily restored to fire. No

Such term shall not include a pistol or a revolver having a rifled bore, or rifled bores, or weapons designed, made, or intended to be fired from the shoulder and not capable of firing fixed ammunition. Therefore a pistol cannot be classified as an AOW. The ATF is just doing their usual and making up crap as they see fit and not actually following the laws they are supposed to enforce.

 

[pjeski]

It doesn't come from specifically meeting one of the definitions of an AOW, it comes from no longer meeting the definition of a pistol:

Pistol. A weapon originally designed, made, and intended to fire a projectile (bullet) from one or more barrels when held in one hand, and having (a) a chamber(s) as an integral part(s) of, or permanently aligned with, the bore(s); and (b) a short stock designed to be gripped by one hand and at an angle to and extending below the line of the bore(s).

 

[MachIVshooter]

DON'T PUT ANY OF THOSE VERTICAL GRIPS ON THAT GUN!

That is still a handgun, under federal law, and adding a vertical forward grip to it would be a violation of the National Firearms Act of 1934, which is a big deal.

If you have a rifle, or make that into a registered Short Barreled Rifle, then you can add that grip.

Or if it qualifies as "other firearm", which some of the longer AR pistol type things do when they have barrels of 12"+ (or if someone were to do, say, a 10" tube with a rifle RE)