Gun show lower receiver question?

[David Hineline]

Carry On

 

[Brkdnc]

The stocked bare receiver is supposed to be listed as "other" on the 4473, But since it has a stock on it from the factory it is considered a long gun by the BATFE. so taking the stock off and using the receiver as a pistol frame would be considered making a short barreled rifle by the BATFE.

Under the instructions for that part of the form it says

If a frame or receiver can only be made into a long gun , it is
still a frame or receiver not a handgun or long gun.

It started life with a stock so it has to keep the stock. If the stock was not installed from the factory or dealer you would be good to use it for anything

 

[David Hineline]

Carry On

 

[Brkdnc]

Just the screwed up way the BATFE works. AR's are the only bare receiver I can think of that MIGHT come with a stock from the factory.

Like I said it is still a long gun in the eyes of the BATFE. If for some reason they went to the manf. and saw that it left the factory with a stock and is in pistol form now you better have a form 1 or form 4 to go with it.

 

[rjrivero]

AR receivers, weather or not they come with a stock, CAN be built into pistols provided they have never been built into a complete rifle.

See letter attached. Page 2 has that direct answer, to that direct question. A stocked receiver. The previous reference is directly from the 4473 instruction page. I don't know how to make that any more clear.

Edit:

but a buttstock makes a receiver shoulder fired and then becomes a long gun, not an other.

I guess the way to look at it is that a buttstock on a receiver can't be fired at all. It needs to have a complete upper attached in order for it to be "fireable." Until it's built into a complete firearm, you can take off the butt stock and put on a pistol buffer tube and a short barreled upper and still have a legal pistol.

 

[David Hineline]

Well that's a nice letter written to an individual. Carry on as you will.

 

[rjrivero]

While I agree that a letter carries precious little weight, coupled with the instructions on the 4473 quoted above (post 19), I highly suggest you have a discussion with your ATF examiner.

I have no doubt that you are a man of integrity and that you believe earnestly that you are filling out your 4473's correctly. What you are attesting to in your 4473's when you fill out a complete receiver with a butt stock as "long gun" is that you are transferring a rifle or shotgun. The fact is, you don't know WHAT your customer is going to do with that lower. He could make it a rifle, pistol, shotgun, SBR, SBS or ANY firearm. Of course you have no control over what your customer does with that lower. However, what you are saying is that when it left the shop it was a Title 1 firearm, when clearly that is not the condition of the firearm when it leaves the shop.

Please READ the 4473 instruction section and call your examiner for clarification.

 

[Tom Servo]

RJ and Tom (the other one) are right. From the horse's mouth, as of July, 2009 [pdf]:

Under section 921(a)(3)(B), frames or receivers are defined as firearms. However, frames and receivers are not rifles, shotguns, or handguns (pístols or revolvers), even if they can only be made into one of these firearms. See Title 27, Code of Federal Regulations, section 478.11 (defining these terms). This is because a frame or receiver
does not have the features required for a rifle or shotgun (e.g., a buttstock indicating it is designed and intended to be fired from the shoulder), or a pistol or revolver (e. g., a weapon with a short stock designed to be gripped by one hand and at an angle to and extending the line of the bore). As a result, Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLS)
should note several things:

First, an FFL may not sell a frame or receiver to anyone under 21 years of age. [Title i8, U.S.C., section 922(b)(l)].

Second, an FFL may not transfer a frame or receiver to an unlicensed person from another State. [Title 18, U.S.C., section 922(b)(3)].

The biggest stink at the time was that folks under 21 couldn't build their own rifles from scratch. There was also some griping about 18-year-olds not being able to buy those goofy Mossberg Cruisers.