Hey everyone,
I came here hoping you guys could clear up so contradicting information I've heard. I have an AR-15, but it has never been in Chicago (I live further south, my family lives in the city and in Wisconsin).

My first question is, is it legal to have an ar-15 in cook county/chicago/north suburbs? I thought I read that I cannot keep my rifle in cook county, but others have said it is okay.

Second question is about building ARs. I heard from one person, that you buy the lower reciever, register it, and you techinically own an AR rifle. The benefit is that if the government ever bans the sale of them, you can still build it because on paper you own it. Contradicting this, I've heard that if you build a rifle, and buy it less than 80% complete, you don't need to register it as a rifle. This sounded incorrect to me, especially in the Chicagoland area... Point being the government doesn't know you own it, but like I said, I feel like this would be illegal.

Again, I bought an AR fully complete, registered, and keep it in a town that has no restrictions on it- so I am completely legal. This post was simply so that I know the correct information.

Thank you everyone.

Copied and pasted the reply I wrote for your post in AR discussions, so the quotes might not be exactly correct:


There is no "registration" either Federal or state in Illinois, unless you are building an SBR (NFA firearm).

You own a receiver. If you build it into a rifle, then you own a rifle.

Repeat after me: THERE. IS. NO. REGISTRATION.

Feelings don't have much to do with the law.

No, it was not "registered" unless you bought an SBR.

If you're talking about an AW ban, trying to speculate on what may or may not be legal under a hypothetical future ban is a rather futile exercise.

If you want to look to the past, during the 94-04 federal AW ban, an AW was an assembly, not a receiver. A firearm would have had to have been assembled into a "banned" configuration before the ban went into effect to be grandfathered. You could not assemble a new AW after the ban went into effect.

Your OP is mostly a collection of myths.

The AW bans in the Chicago area are specific to individual cities as well as some parts of Cook County. The Illinois State Police has a list of municipal ordinances on their firearms services website:
https://www.ispfsb.com/Public/Firearms/MunicipalOrdinances.aspx
so you need to check out the cities you will be in.

In theory Illinois handgun regulation is supposed to be pre-empted, so if you built an AR pistol instead of a rifle first, you could always change back to a pistol when traveling. Or FOPA would theoretically protect you if you were traveling interstate and followed the FOPA transportation requirements.

It is perfectly lawful to assemble a legal configuration (non-NFA) firearm using a stripped receiver as long as the receiver was acquired lawfully. It's also perfectly lawful to construct your own receiver and then assemble a non-NFA configuration firearm.

I do not live in Cook, nor am I a lawyer.

It is my understanding Cook/Chicago has an AWB that an AR15 rifle falls under unless in a Cook town with home rule legislation, hence the reason people living there store them outside of the city/county.

There is no registration as such for a firearm.   What do you mean?    The lower is the official serialized firearm that the 4473 is for.   Uppers and other parts are good to go without paperwork. It may be a rifle or pistol depending on how you build it out.   Built originally as a rifle, always a rifle.   Built initially as a pistol and you may go back and forth switching from pistol to rifle to pistol.

Dont know much about 80%.  As a personal built firearm, I do not think a 4473 is required as the unfinished lower is just a hunk of metal.  I would suspect Cook/Chicago would say as a rifle  it still falls under their AWB.

ETA wrote this while Gamma was posting his reply.

Non-lawyer reply: my understanding is that you can possess an AR with GI mag in IL and as long as you follow federal laws you are legit - but there is a risk anywhere (including IL) that an overzealous cop will harass you and you will have to defend yourself, sue to get your property back, etc.

Ref buying a stripped lower: if the FFL registers it as a pistol or lower or receiver you are legit to build what you want. My understanding is that as long as "rifle" isn't on the 4473 then you are covered. But this is one ATF opinion letter removed from being false.

Ref 80% lowers: this concept always seemed like one ATF letter away from prison to me. I have no issue owning dozens of stripped lowers as an investment ... but owning dozens of 80% lowers - while currently legit - always reminds me of Drew Carey ... "... when you subscribe to the porn channel and the cartoon channel they put you on a special list ..." ... I have nothing to back this up, but it seems more defensible to tell a judge I was being a capitalist than a machinist in my spare time ;)


ETA: wrote this as the two smarter gents above were posting their reply.  I would argue if you own it in a legit town, then you can possess/transport it without concern assuming you follow transport laws. I stand by my stripped lower and 80% lower comments.

Absolutely not. Receivers are receivers, period.  FFLs do not register a receiver as anything, much less register them as something they are not.

IIRC, stripped lowers are listed as OTHER on the 4473, but are treated as a pistol and the wait is 72 hours since final configuration is not known.   Im assuming the 4473  is what people mean when saying the firearms are registered.

Thanks for all of the information. I'm no firearm expert and don't claim to be. Glad you are all available for info.

That's because the final configuration is irrelevant. Receivers are not treated as a pistol, they are treated as a receiver. They are not handguns and are not subject to multiple handgun sales reporting. The wait is 72 hours in IL since they are not a long gun.

You can have an AR is most suburbs of Chicago.

First person experience - I have purchased stripped receivers from various online sources and shipped to various FFLs ... I've seen "Lower" and "Receiver" on 4473s



No idea on the "OTHER" ... but I agree that most people who talk about 'registering' what they buy mean Form 4473 #29 - not NFA stuff