I have a post ban Armalite AR-15.  I was wondering if I bought a preban lower and put my post ban upper on it, would that make it pre ban so I could add all the cool accessories?  Or is this just a rumor I heard?

Thanks,
Wes

Yup.

That is pretty cool.  Seeing as how it doesn't cost all that much for a pre ban lower, I might do that in the future.  Thanks for the help.


Wes

Just be sure that your preban lower you buy is complete with it's fire control parts and a telestock.
There is a lot of grey area where the lower can lose it's preban status.

Why would you do that?  Why wouldn't you just buy a preban style upper if you spent so much money on a preban lower? Where do you find that a preban lower doesn't cost all that much?  At the very least a preban costs $750.  I usually see them for about $1000 for just the lower.  A postban lower costs at the most $350 for a match trigger and $250 at the most for the standard.

The only "cool" accessories you can't have on your upper now is a flash suppressor and a bayonet lug.  A bayonet is just about useless and without threads, you can't mount a flash suppressor.  If you get the postban upper threade4d for a FS, you couldn't mount it back on the postban lower.

It really doesn't make any sense in mounting the postban upper on a preban lower.  Just get a complete preban if that is what you want or buy the preban lower and a new preban upper.

Purely as a matter of practical thinking, contact the maker of the pre-ban lower in question (via phone, website, whatever) and check to see if that particular serial number is listed as pre-ban.  If it is,  that is proof enough of its pre-ban status. Beyond that,  just don't say anything to anybody about its configuration.  If anyone asks, it had a telescoping stock attached to it when you bought it and nobody can prove otherwise.    

If the maker says it's pre-ban, that's good enough for me and I'd never say anything to anyone that might even IMPLY that it might be questionable according to the BATF.

CJ

It was purely a hypothetical question and I was wrong about the lowers being inexpensive.  I did some shopping and they are right around $750 each.  I do think it is cool that you can put a post ban upper on a pre ban lower, though.  However, the only "accessory" I wanted was the collapsable stock, so I don't think that justifies the price.  Thanks for all the responses though.

Wes

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but it is my understanding that if a pre-ban lower is sold without a pre-ban upper attached it looses its pre-ban status.  I may be wrong, but I don't think so. I do not believe that you can simply transfer a "complete" lower.  I believe you have to transfer a complete pre-ban gun. I suppose that if you can show by serial number that it was manufactured as a complete gun (lower and upper) then you could get away with it.  However, what would you do if someone asked to see the pre-ban upper that you bought with the gun?

18 USC Sec 921(a)(3) addresses this specifically.  Check out the current thread in the Legal Forum.

If it has a collapsable stock on it it has 3 evil features and is cosidered a complete rifle.