Can I have two uppers for one pistol lower?

[BAGunner]

Let's say I have one normal AR15 rifle and one pistol lower, is it possible to have one 10inch 5.56 upper and one 7-inch 9mm upper?

And what if I have a few stripped lower laying around? and/or a few rifle upper laying around?

[elrcastor]

as long as all of the rifle lowers have a 16"+ upper to go with them, then you are good to go. Extra rifle lowers + loose <16" uppers == bad.

[dachan]

as long as all of the rifle lowers have a 16"+ upper to go with them, then you are good to go. Extra rifle lowers + loose <16" uppers == bad.

And what is the legal basis for this statement?

[quig]

as long as all of the rifle lowers have a 16"+ upper to go with them, then you are good to go. Extra rifle lowers + loose <16" uppers == bad.

[Untamed1972]

as long as you have a pistol the the less that 16" uppers will fit on you should be of clear any constructive posession issues. It's when you have an short barrelled upper and no pistol to put it on that you're in deep doodoo.

[plan-b]

This thread might do better in the 2A/Legal forum.

[ke6guj]

And what is the legal basis for this statement?

I seem to recall that there are some ATF letters that explain that.

Basically what you don't want is a situation where ATF/CADOJ inventories your AR stuff and allocate an upper to each lower to see if you have constructive possesion of an SBR. If you can fully assemble any rifle lowers you have and make a legal rifle out of them, then having extra pistol uppers isn't an issue (provided that you do have a pistol lower). Its call the rule of lenity. Now, that doesn't mean that it would be fine to have 1 assembled pistol lower, 10 extra pistol uppers, and 10 complete rifles. At that point, having that many extra pistol uppers might be looked at as a potential SBR violation.

[stover]

as long as all of the rifle lowers have a 16"+ upper to go with them, then you are good to go. Extra rifle lowers + loose <16" uppers == bad.

Is there a PC or ATF doc referring to this? What if you have 3 lowers, and 2 uppers? Cant the 3rd lower be a "spare"?

[OC-Indian]

Ive heard you cant own a pistol upper without a pistol lower but never that you cant own unequal numbers of rifle uppers and rifle lowers. Someone clear this up

[BAGunner]

Looks like there is no definitive answer to this. I will ask BATF and CADOJ.

[curtisfong]

Looks like there is no definitive answer to this.

So far so good.

I will ask BATF and CADOJ.

Unlikely to resolve anything. You'll get FUD at best, and incorrect information at worst.

[Untamed1972]

See bills post in an old thread on the same topic

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showpost.php?p=3797751&postcount=4

[Some Guy]

I read a thread some where, I believe it was on subguns, where a guy had a papered FA lower for which he had an sbr upper. He also had a semi AR and wrote atf to ask if he was allowed a spare upper for his FA lower. They told him he could have no spare while he owned the AR , he posted the actual letter iirc.
posting from phone sorry for errors.

[tenpercentfirearms]

I have an extra 9mm rifle lower laying around, but I have a featureless upper for swapping back and forth between 10 round pistol grip use and 32 round featureless use.

I plan on getting a 7" .223 upper some day for my 10.5 AR Pistol. Maybe I will just go all the way and get a complete pistol, but having a RRA 9mm only lower I think I should be fine with any extra .223 pistol uppers I have in the safe.

I'm glad this topic came up because I had assumed that as long as I had one pistol around, it would be okay to have multiple pistol uppers. I may not agree, but I can see the argument that any spare rifle lowers ready to accept that pistol upper might be considered constructive possession. It might not be worth the money to fight and win that one in court and some simple steps can be taken to make sure you don't have to.

[mrjones98]

What would the minimum upper need to be for the spare rifle lowers to keep one out of constructive possession (assuming that you cannot have spare rifle lowers and spare pistol uppers lying around).

In other words, if there is an issue with quantities, is the following kosher:

1 complete AR pistol
1 complete AR rifle
3 AR rifle lowers, each attached to a stripped upper
1 AR pistol upper