AR pistol lower question

[CSACANNONEER]

what legal way? I would like to know for my knowledge

One would be to buy one PPT from someone who moved here with it and registered it as a handgun.

There are other ways but, you're bright enough to figure them out.

[Salt Works Rifles LLC.]

It needs to be a SSE pistol with the lower marked pistol.

[Salt Works Rifles LLC.]

My bad it does not have to be stamped "pistol" but it can't have ever been legally considered a "rifle" or a "long gun.

[CSACANNONEER]

It needs to be a SSE pistol with the lower marked pistol.

No SSE required for PPTs.

My bad it does not have to be stamped "pistol" but it can't have ever been legally considered a "rifle" or a "long gun.

Not true on a Federal level. There are ATF&E opinion letters floating around that say it is legal to go from long gun to handgun IF the receiver was originally configured as a handgun. In Ca, no one knows for sure.

[stix213]

cant any FFL sell a striped lower as a pistol if they configure it as a SSE pistol to do the safety demo, then strip it back down ? not sure why no one does this but seems to be legal to do so from my understanding

Sounds legal to me, but installing and then stripping an LPK from a lower that typically sells for $150-ish is probably not that cost effective labor cost wise, though they could probably get away with selling it in the $300-$400 range.

[Salt Works Rifles LLC.]

Yes If the receiver was originally configured as a handgun you are correct.

1. Fabricated from an "80% lower receiver"

2. Manufactured as a complete pistol by an FFL with the proper manufacturing FFL license like me.

[CSACANNONEER]

Of course, there is no law in CA that makes it illegal to build a handgun on a virgin receiver which was DROSed as a long gun either. But, it's not worth the potential trouble that it might bring.

[Salt Works Rifles LLC.]

By now most everyone has gotten the word that an assembled combination of a frame, buttstock, and barrel under 16" represents a potential invitation to "The Graybar Hotel," but many shooters are oblivious to those parts of the same law that address "making" a handgun from a rifle.

This is technically against the law!

One can legally convert a handgun into a rifle by installing a buttstock and a barrel 16" or longer, but once it is configured as a rifle, converting it back to a handgun is "making" a handgun from a rifle.

The "Catch 22" is there is no way to identify whether any given frame started life configured as a handgun or as a rifle, nor is there any way to know its history changing hands from one owner to the next.

Oh wait California long gun registration.

[CSACANNONEER]

Oh wait California long gun registration.

But, the $64,000 question is: Does DROS or registration of a bare receiver as a long gun have any legal meaning as far as the bare receiver goes? It will be interesting when someone buys a virgin receiver in CA DROSed as a long gun, moves out of state, legally assembles the virgin receiver into a handgun and then moves back into Ca with a legal firearm that they originally purchased in CA. What if it gets sold and then brought into the state by someone who did not know it was ever in Ca before? My non lawyer opinion is that neither registration nor DROS make a virgin receiver anything more than a virgin receiver.

[Salt Works Rifles LLC.]

[CSACANNONEER]

There are much newer letters around that say from pistol to rifle to pistol are legal too.

[Pinto]

The "Catch 22" is there is no way to identify whether any given frame started life configured as a handgun or as a rifle, nor is there any way to know its history changing hands from one owner to the next.

Oh wait California long gun registration.

Even before "long gun registration". I own two stripped pistol lowers that were ordered and shipped by the mfr. into Calif as pistols, initially registered as pistols and, when transferred to me a few years ago, registered by me as pistols. Because that's what they've always been, configured or not.

If the serial number was to be run, they would come back as pistols. Same as a new, stripped 1911 frame.

[Salt Works Rifles LLC.]

When did you get them?

[Pinto]

Made me look - 11/09

[Salt Works Rifles LLC.]

And they were on the California roster of handguns certified for sale in 09?