Legal Mossberg with 14" barrel! But...

[Owen Sparks]

...the kicker it that it only has a pistol grip stock.

http://shockwavetechnologies.com/site/?page_id=88

What if you had one of these things and a another Mossberg 500 with a conventional stock under the same roof? You would only be a minute away from constructing an illegal short barreled shotgun by simply swapping barrels or stocks. I have read that having a short barrel is not illegal by itself but becomes a crime if you have a shotgun that will fit it anywhere in the same location. Seems like that would apply here unless Mossberg has changed something so that the barrels and stocks can not interchange.

 

[CoRoMo]

...becomes a crime if you have a shotgun that will fit it anywhere in the same location.

Not quite. If you only had the one 14" PGO, and you have a shoulder stock there with it, then maybe, just maybe. But having an entire shotgun wearing a shoulder stock does not equal constructive possession. Constructive possession is not a law in fact; just a legal concept.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=7135580

You would only be a minute away from constructing an illegal short barreled shotgun...

The often stated example of how this isn't constructive possession is that I have a number of power tools, under the same roof as my firearms, that are more than capable of cutting the barrel of a rifle or shotgun down below regulated length, putting me only "a minute away from constructing an illegal short barreled shotgun", but in reality, I'm in no violation of any law and I'm well outside the realms of 'constructive possession'.

 

[Sam1911]

Right on, CoRoMo.

You can own multiple firearms that could be parts-swapped to fall into illegal configurations. Like, for example, an AR-15 pistol and an AR-15 rifle. Two pins away from an illegal SBR, right? But you don't do that, so you don't have to worry about it.

Now, if all your lowers have buttstocks and you own a short-barreled upper? Maybe an issue.*

The ATF have agreed that if there is a way for all the parts to go together in a legal manner, then the benefit of the doubt goes to the owner. (Unless there is some evidense of actual illegal assembly.)

(Of course, now that it is established that it is lawful to use a pistol or "other" lower to construct a rifle, and then return to a pistol configuration later, even having a short barreled upper on hand becomes something that really can't be prosecuted, so long as one lower is or was once a handgun or "other.")