Getting some conflicting info. & need to settle an arguement:
~ Person 1 says: that certain mfg’s can register the s/n of stripped receiver with ATF and form out to class iii dealers. Class iii dealer in turn forms out to civi as an SBR / NFA tax stamp. NO engraving as the receiver was born as a SBR.
~Person 2 says: no one can serialize and sell stripped lowers as SBR’s. A stripped receiver does not make it an SBR. It has to be assembled in an SBR configuration and be in that configuration when it transfers and ships.
This should be interesting. Since ATF says the receiver constitutes the firearm, and since they only regulate the purchase of the receiver you would certainly think that if it’s a SOT producing the receiver it could be bought that way (technically SBR’d). I mean all any of us actually register is the lower. True we have to claim a length and caliber but you could buy and sell any number of uppers and they would all be legal on the same lower.
Did person one mention any particular company that would sell said lower?
FireGlock, gonna hold off and see how this plays out…lots of smart guys here I trust. I know nfa items can get confusing for all of us & this just kinda fell in my lap.
I do need to update & not sure if this helps or makes my head hurt:
~Person 1 says: When registered (from mfg) they have to have a designation & it is registered as a rifle even though it isn’t build yet. The SBR stripped lowers cost a hair more because of the FET & ATF considers the item as complete.
The licensed SOT manufacturer has to register the SBR on a Form 2 giving a barrel length and overall length of the SBR.
Last year I purchased an SBR lower from Sun Devil that they had not been assembled yet. Unbeknownst to me Sun Devil had registered it on the Form 2 with a 6.5 inch barrel length and I believe a 26 inch overall length. I filled out the Form 4 for Sun Devil and I said it had a 10.5 inch barrel length, which is what I intended to put on it. Sun Devil had to send ATF an e-mail explaining the reason it now had a 10.5 inch barrel instead of the 6.5 they registered it with. Not a big deal, but caused a delay.
As far as ATF is concerned the SBR is a complete gun with a certain barrel and overall length, not a stripped lower receiver.
Never did call atf nor can I give you anything conrete…i’m an 01 dealer and will ask my examiners next audit for my own curiosity, although I do understand that is not always necessarily the final word as they will have wiggle room on issues between one another on a few certain topics. Had my class iii buddy over for some beers and bbq this past weekend and kicked it around. His feelings were in line with this from your link:
Anyway, we also got into the issues of differences of opinion and what you see on the forms regarding bbl length, where some examiners are cool with just having say a 7.5" upper on your form and you may be shooting a 10.5". He said Some examiners are fine and others want to see an attachment for every bbl length or listed 7.5-14.5?? We also discussed the good ole arguement where some say it’s bad juju to have an assembled 10.5 upper on hand before your sbr lower comes in and others say it’s perfectly legal and boils down to intent??
I can tell you my guy has been through 2-3 audits and is also in explosives so it’s usually a 2-3 deal day for him and there were never any issues for the stripped sbr lowers coming direct. It’s all kind of confusing but I personally feel you are safe as long as you have your form to prove you got your tax stamp for the said lower. Mostly, you have to be comfortable with what direction you take on some of these issues where we see slight discrepancies. Personally, I think ATF simply does not want to see indifference on anyone’s part by intentionally getting around an obvious infraction.
I purchased 2x SBR stripped lowers a few years ago with out any issues. More recently, when I inquired abt purchasing 1 more, I was told that they were advised that this was no longer allowed as they are “manufacturing a rifle, in a particular configuration, OAL/BL, etc.”
The next day, I inquired with a different manufacturer and was advised the same thing, that they were not allowed to sell stripped lowers and they had to have an upper attached. However, this manufacturer offered me a solution to this new “interpretation by BATFE”, and that was for me to sell my upper to them for $1.00, and then they would ship their stripped lower (along w/my upper), to my SOT, therefore manufacturing and selling a “rifle”.
This was all about 12 months ago so I’m not current as to what has been recently re-interpreted…
