Lets say I have 5  >16" complete AR's on hand.......and I have 5 registered SBR lowers.....and 6 short barrel uppers.  The extra upper.....without extra lowers.......is it a no no?

If I get a pistol lower for the extra upper...........can it be stripped or does it need to be built?


Am I over thinking it?

 
This.  One lower gives you a legal possible configuration.  That is all you need.  Not a configuration for everything all at once.

Cool.  Thanks

Stop this Immediately, before someone goes to the BATFE and asks them. This is how SIG Braces got ruined, and 855, and...

No need.  The Thompson Center court case decided this conclusively.  As long as you own at least one legal configuration (SBR, pistol, MG, etc.) you can have as many short barrels as you want.

There is no ambiguity on this question any more - and hasn't been for many years.

TC didn't address this scenario and doesn't offer protection in this manner.

TC is limited to a design like the TC Contender, a single firearm with multiple possible configurations. A single receiver could be built into a legal configuration or an illegal configuration.

A registered SBR doesn't mean there isn't CP vulnerability on another firearm in your possession. Theoretically, if also you had a stripped lower with buttstock and the only way it could be assembled was with a spare SBR upper, then you not within the protection established by TC.

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough.  
I should have said:  As long as you own at least one legal configuration for each type of short barrel that you have; ie., AR uppers/barrels, 10/22 barrels, T/C barrels, etc.

Typically, it is very difficult if not impossible for a non-gunsmith to fit barrels from different firearms types to others; and thus not a legal concern.

Also, the example you site is covered by the T/C case.  As long as there is at least one legal way to assemble any of the parts you own, you are covered.  In other words, if you own one registered AR SBR receiver and 15 short barreled uppers, it is permissible to own another non-SBR AR rifle lower with a rifle stock as long as you own at least one other AR upper with a 16"+ barrel installed.  I believe it would also be OK simply to own another 16"+ AR barrel, whether or not it is installed in an upper, since it is trivial to swap out AR barrels (you own all of the parts needed for a legal configuration).

Fuck yeah! I dont own an SBR yet but I want to, and I always thought you would need a stamp for each short barrel.

First this has been beaten to death and the answer is simple.

IF THERE IS A LEGAL USE FOR ANY ITEM, SAID ITEM CAN NOT BE USED TO INFER CONSTRUCTIVE POSSESSION.

Sorry

What that means is that if there is a legal use for the item, then the person possessing the item is given the benefit of doubt that the item is only to be used in a legal configuration

So no matter how many uppers, lowers, stocks, vertical grips, etc. you possess; if there is a legal use for each and every item constructive possession can NOT be used against you

If, however, you do place legal items into an illegal configuration, you have crossed the line from constructive  possession to possession and that is not going to end in your favor

Yup with ARs you register the lower only and pay the $200 tax stamp.

This isn't accurate to Thompson Center. "Legal use" is not the threshold for CP. If this were the case, then SCOTUS would have denied the use of CP completely, it wouldn't exist because simply possessing a short barreled upper is a perfectly legal use for it. The threshold established by SCOTUS in the TC case is when the illegal configuration of the firearm is the only possible configuration. Having a TC Contender that can be assembled either as a legal pistol or rifle and as an illegal SBR is beyond the use of Constructive Possession because the law itself is silent on the situation, hence per the Rule of Lenity the law must assume legality, it must give you the benefit of the doubt as you say.

In this case, however,  multiple firearms and NFA-qualifying parts are hypothetically present and the protections against the use of CP from the TC case do not apply to all firearms present. If there is a partially assembled or stripped firearm present in addition to the registered SBR or MG that when assembled with the spare parts present can only result in an illegally configured firearm, then CP can still be used as a tool for prosecution. A registered SBR is not immunity from the use of CP for all the other firearms you might possess.

Analysis from Stephen P. Halbrook, the attorney representing TC

"Justice Souter wrote that "a set of parts that could be used to make nothing but a short-barreled rifle" would, if there is an "aggregation" of such, be a short-barreled rifle. The opinion states that "a combination of parts that could only be assembled into an NFA-regulated firearm" would be such a firearm. Further, a non-NFA gun becomes an NFA firearm if "placed together with a further part or parts that would have no use in association with the gun except to convert it into a firearm." As examples, the court mentions a carbine with a machinegun conversion kit, and a pistol and attachable shoulder stock found in different drawers of the same dresser. The opinion notes that some parts could be used without assembling a firearm, but finds that unlikely because of "the utter uselessness of placing the converting parts with the others except for just such a conversion."

Justice Scalia, joined by Justice Thomas, wrote a concurring opinion. Scalia agrees with the plurality opinion by Souter that the rule of lenity applies. He opine that the ambiguity arises over whether mere parts constitute a "firearm," not over whether a parts kit has a useful non-NFA purpose, the criterion of the plurality which is not found in the statute. The key to why the Contender items are not a short-barreled rifle is the fact that other NFA firearms are defined as combinations of parts, while "rifle" is not. Scalia rejects the plurality's imputed redundancy between "putting together" and "otherwise producing a firearm" as definitions of "make." The plurality's interpretation creates a redundancy in rejecting the significance of combination-of-parts definitions."

SCOTUS stated that the ambiguity in the law, with relation to how "rifle" is defined, allows the rule of lenity to apply with the criminal penalties attached.

In your opinion, every dealer who sold complete lowers in the same location as complete short uppers could be prosecuted. hell, they could be prosecuted for illegal manufacturing as well with all that constructive possession going on there.

Yes SCOTUS confirmed that possessing the parts to make an Illegal SBR was equal to possessing an illegal SBR, except if those parts could be used in legal configurations (allowed by rule of lenity)

When it comes down to it, nothing is covered by the TC case except the specific TC conversion kit. BUT it is highly unlikely that BATFE will push the issue further in court, they are still licking their wounds from their last few go rounds

If I have an SBR upper and wanted to beat a horse to death with it, does the horse have to be longer then 16 inches? Or can I beat 16 one inch horses?

So if you had a complete AR rifle in your safe , and bought a short barrel upper before you got another  lower set up for a pistol thats illegal? so technically if you are gonna build an AR pistol youd have to buy the lower first?