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AR15 barrel length, pistol vs rifle?

buggz

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Hello,

Is the rifle, or pistol legally classified/defined/registered by the lower receiver?

Not legally classified/defined by configuration?

Confused...
 
There is no registration of firearms in the state of Georgia.

An AR is defined as a pistol or a rifle, by the length of the barrel. A barrel of less than 16” makes it a pistol. A barrel 16” and longer makes it a rifle.

An AR lower receiver purchased stripped, or as a complete lower receiver group with no upper receiver, is an “Other”; it’s neither a rifle or a pistol. It becomes a rifle or a pistol after someone installs an upper receiver with barrel on it. A complete lower receiver group is an “Other” even if purchased with a stock installed. The buyer can remove the stock and leave the receiver extension bare, or install a brace on it, and build it into a pistol.

Per the ATF regulations, once a lower is built into a rifle, a rifle it must stay. You cannot change it to a pistol. You can Form 1 it and register it as a Short Barreled Rifle (SBR).

By those some regulations, if the lower is built into a pistol, it can legally be later built into a rifle, and at any time it can be built back into a pistol.
 
I'm thinking it is best to have two lowers, and keep them, and components,
marked and seperated, just to make them unquestionable.
Two seperate safes, even.

The same would also apply to Encore frames, I would think.
 
I'm thinking it is best to have two lowers, and keep them, and components,
marked and seperated, just to make them unquestionable.
Two seperate safes, even.

The same would also apply to Encore frames, I would think.
Every lower I make is ‘born a pistol’. Even if it is just long enough to be able to legally say when it was put first together it was born with a pistol brace and a pistol barrel, for long enough to take a picture.
 
I'd err on the side of caution and not only build it as pistol and then snap a photo of it, but I'd also leave it as a pistol for at least one range session.
Makes it that much clearer that it really was a pistol and your intent was to have a pistol, a working pistol.
 
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