Quote History Quoted:The info is on the ATF page.
Find the reporting link, choose calendar year/category/manufacturer. The counts are all there.
Again, the configuration that it left the factory as is what counts in the end. An FFL can dick it up logging on a 4473 transfer, but that doesn't change what it was reported as by the manufacturer.
I won't even start the "pistol first= pistol/rifle or rifle first/always a rifle" debate her. Folks get twisted enough.
Reported. Not registered.
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This is how I'm leaning, too. Colt made some extra 14.5" rifles for a export contract. They later decide they don't need them, so they unpin the upper and lower and sell separately.
They sure as shit didn't let them leave the factory in that configuration, as they would be SBRs and under the scope of the NFA.
So, lowers leave the factory to AU. Lowers get listed on the AU website. Lowers get sent to FFLs. Lowers get transferred to buyers. Nobody except same bean counters inside colt somewhere have any sort of information about which lower has been pinned to an upper and which ones haven't.
Everything that happens inside colt's doors is part of the manufacturing process. If they pin together a lower to an upper to test and then pull them apart, that is parts of the manufacturing process.