Quoted:  It's one of those shady areas, but only if you're using a standard buffer tube on the pistol. If you have a smooth pistol buffer tube that won't accept a stock, you can't make an illegal SBR, so you shouldn't have any issues. I'd think you'd also be ok with a standard buffer tube wrapped in paracord, but I personally have just stayed as far away from any questionable situation as I can. I don't keep any extra uppers around...I buy a lower for them and set it up as a complete firearm.

Quoted:
On the AR sheet-


13 shows a pistol with several shorts uppers and several complete rifles as gtg.


What if you added one or more extra stocks to that pic?




If you have a pistol and complete rifles can .fed claim any extra stocks are intended to shr the pistol as opposed to the fact that you just have a left over from a rifle that has a new stock. Or having stripped rifle lowers that are ready to assemble?


Current case law pretty much states that if you have a legal use for "spare parts" then there is no foundation for a case of constructive possession

Quoted:
Yep.  Pop pistol length upper off, pop rifle length upper on, pop stock on, GTG.  Given this recent conviction that is apparently a result of local cops making an illegal SBR and perjuring themselves, I don't really know how to advise people.  It's apparently now possible to be convicted for the possession of an illegal SBR by simply having the parts available from which an illegal SBR can be assembled - I suppose if you have a hacksaw in your garage, you could have your house searched on a BS warrant & they'll just saw your bbl off and send you to prison.  So do we carry on as before, and take pictures of our legally configured ARs every time we leave the house & the range, and hope that will be sufficient evidence in court that the police are perjuring themselves & we haven't assembled an illegal SBR?  I dunno.

Quoted:  So the reason folks do that is so you can swap around from rifle to pistol and back again using the same lower receiver.    I dunno but that seems like a recipes for trouble to me, even before this poor guys recent conviction (especially if are driving around with those parts to assemble a SBR in your trunk).    I know HK folks do this all the time as well by having one sear-pack, half dozen pistol hosts, and stocks that fit all those semi-pistol hosts.  Then go to the range and only attach the stock to the gun with the sear installed at that time and swap them around.  

This seems like one of those concepts that while theoretically legal, but your butt only stays out of jail if you have the money and time to hire the best attorneys money can buy to fight the government.  Similar to it being legal to come back into the country with less than $10K in cash, but don't be surprised if you try and bring back $9999, get caught and an extra dollar somehow gets added to the mix at the time of your arrest.

Its a free country and folks can take on all the risk they want, but I wouldn't recommend having all the parts available to assemble an SBR in your trunk unless the lower in question is a registered SBR.

Quoted:

I guess I don't really see a difference between a trunk & your house.  It's either legal to possess spare parts for your rifles, and an AR pistol, or it's not.  BATFE says it's legal.  In the case in question, we have an ARFCOMmer telling us his friend got railroaded by felonious cops who allegedly a) broke the NFA themselves & b) perjured themselves on the stand.  If our only defense to an NFA conviction is to somehow convince a jury that the cops are perjurers, then we need rolling video @ all times, I suppose.  Out brother Big Brother.  

Quoted:  The difference between your house and your trunk are all about odds.   Generally for cops to enter your home it requires probably cause and a warranty and the barrier to entry much higher.   Your home in general also doesn't provide for a laundry list of probably cause fishing expeditions like an automobile does.

Cars are just basically rolling probably cause with a myriad of laws that need to be complied with.  Functioning taillights, proper insurance, registration, inspection, speed limits, stop signs, using your turn signals, not texting, not getting into an accident, etc.  The government has a venerable army of folks (i.e. traffic cops) who whole goal in life is to monitor and find minor infractions to these myriad of laws in the quest for revenue generation (i.e. tickets).      

When you get pulled over for one of these minor infractions or accidentally rear end somebody its these folks job to look for other violations.  Guns, drugs, large amounts of illicit cash, DUI impairment, dead hooker in the trunk, etc.  

Even if you don't consent to a search (as the convicted guy found out) cops can search your car pursuant to a tow or get a dog to "hit" on the car to generate probably cause and then search.

If you want to swap parts around on a AR15 to convert it from a pistol to a rifle and back again, it would be my opinion to do that in the privacy and safety of your home and leave in a configuration that is 100% unambiguously legal when you walk out the door.  The odds of getting caught and prosecuted are drastically lower than keeping all the requisite components to create a felony in your trunk driving around with them, especially as easy as it is to pop a stock onto a carbine tube.  

Are you 100% safe keeping potentially illegal stuff in your house.... of course not, Chumlee is a example of that.  However, he is also a prime example of how money buys freedom as he isn't going to jail but the guy in Arkansas is. (crazy as that is)

Many folks think the law is black and white and if they are technically right they are safe.  The reality is that there is a whole myriad of gray where you may be technically on the right side of the line but it doesn't preclude you from being jailed and prosecuted because of a crooked cop, an overzealous prosecutor, of just plain dumb bad luck.

Quoted:

I'm pretty troubled by this case.  If cops are willing to feloniously build an SBR, then perjure themselves about it, not having any guns in the car is no defense from them planting drugs on you.  If that's the case, the rule of law is @ an end.  I realize there are a great many folks here that have already come to that conclusion, but I find it difficult to make that leap.

Quoted:  Of course there are crooked cops out who plant drugs on folks.   However, the odds of random Straight Laced Sally having drugs planted on them out of the blue for no reason are probably pretty slim.    

Be a known drug offender and get caught with a car trunk full of bongs and misc  drug paraphernalia will the odds of a joint magically appearing in your ashtray go up,  probably yes.

In this example, just like the guy in Arkansas, the cops probably figured the guy in question was probably guilty of a myriad of firearm laws but was trying to skate on some technicalities.  Certainly didn't help his case that he had M16 FCG parts in gun as well. (for which I believe he was initially arrested)

I am not saying this is "right" or condoning this type of behaviour but that is the reality of the world we live in and is nothing new.

This is one of those situations where if he had kept himself 100% legal with a pistol buffer tube as well as not dabbled in having unnecessary M16 FCG parts in his gun he probably wouldn't be in jail and a convicted felon.  My suspicion is the cops in this case would not have taken a 100% legit AR15 pistol, gone to the back of their patrol car, yanked the stock off their issued M4 and installed it on his AR pistol and arrested him.  Obviously anything is possible but the odds would have been much more in his favor of never being arrested in the first place or at least made his attorney's job  easier.

Quoted:


I've not read the whole thread w/ links attached, so I'm not tracking on the M16 FCG parts - my understanding is BATFE dropped the machinegun charges.