A pistol lower has to *start* as a pistol, which means it needs to be bought from your FFL as if it were a pistol.  If you buy the lower as a rifle, it's a rifle, and can then only be made into a SBR.

Post-ban pistols are heavily restricted by the AW ban.  Because the magazine is outside of the grip, you can't have handguards or heat shields, threaded barrels or FSs, and the pistol must weigh less than 50oz.  This is  impossible to achieve with standard AR parts (certainly with an 11" barrel), and difficult even with a bunch of modifications.

The only two such beasts are the Professional Ordnance Carbon 15 pistol, which uses lightened, non-standard parts, and the Olympic OA-98, which uses a modified OA-93 upper (also non-standard) and is swiss-cheesed to save enough weight:

[img]www.olyarms.com/popup/img/oa98sml.jpg[/img]

You can get around these restrictions by permanently affixing the magazine, or buying a pre-ban pistol.

Pre-ban AR pistols are somewhat rare and ridiculously expensive (2000-3000), and then you still end up with a pistol that has terminal ballistics not much better than a .22LR.  Fun toys, but lousy weapons.

-Troy

An SBR lower can have any length barrel down to the minimum size you specify (most people say 7" barrel regardless of what they actually use on it).  You can put standard uppers on it as you like.

Note that a post-ban receiver can be made into an SBR, but an SBR is still a *rifle*, so it is still post-ban, and cannot be made into an AW.  So, if you want to have a FS, bayo lug, or collapsable stock, you have to start with a pre-ban lower.

-Troy