AR-15 pistols

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Lightsped

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Ok, what is the attraction to the AR-15s that most AR manufacturers are producing these days?

Also, from a technical standpoint, can one install a standard collapsible stock onto an AR pistol?
 
Lightsped said:
Ok, what is the attraction to the AR-15s that most AR manufacturers are producing these days?

Also, from a technical standpoint, can one install a standard collapsible stock onto an AR pistol?
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No stock, because then you have a SBR. Technical, its just an AR.

The attraction is fun. They are really really fun to shoot, and the ammo's cheap, and it uses AR mags. (High cap) So whats not to like about them?
 
As soon as you put a stock on it you have converted it from being a pistol to a "short barrelled rifle." (SBR). SBR's are regulated by the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA). You can legally own a SBR, but you have to fill out a bunch of paperwork and pay a special tax. $200, if memory serves.
 
BryanP said:
As soon as you put a stock on it you have converted it from being a pistol to a "short barrelled rifle." (SBR). SBR's are regulated by the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA). You can legally own a SBR, but you have to fill out a bunch of paperwork and pay a special tax. $200, if memory serves.
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But technically, as in nuts and bolts, what is to stop someone from installing a stock onto a AR pistol? I understand the law, I am askiing the question from a technical standpoint....
 
Technicaly and legaly speaking, you can get a 16"+ barrell to go with it. So long as you have the longer barrell installed you can put the stock on without breaking any laws.
 
I thought that- because it was built as a pistol- it would be illegal to do this without special paperwork.
 
hkmp5g17 said:
I thought that- because it was built as a pistol- it would be illegal to do this without special paperwork.
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A pistol can have a 16"+ barrel and stock installed at the same time making it very much like a rifle. A rifle OTOH can never have a barrel less than 16" (without NFA paperwork) even if the stock is removed. Once a rifle, always a rifle, is the ATF interpretation.

For people who make AR "pistols", some will go to great lengths to document that the stripped receiver had never been built into a rifle before being assembled as a pistol. That is the requirement for a pistol build of a (typically) rifle receiver. After it is documented that it was first a pistol-build then it can rebuilt into a rifle or pistol configuration but legally it's still a pistol. Fun, isn't it?

The same situation exists with Thompson Center single shot rifles and pistols. Rifle/pistol-length barrels and stocks/grips can be easily changed to create a rifle, pistol, or SBR (that one requires paperwork to certify the receiver as an SBR). I believe there was a big court case concerning the ATF and TC encore frames. I don't know the details of it though.
 
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