dcmdon
NES Member
In the past, when people have asked about building a pistol with a pre-94 ban receiver, I and many other knowledgeable people have said something to the tune of:
Pretty much impossible. Per the feds, once a rifle, always a rifle. You can't build it as a handgun.
And since pre-94 there were almost zero AR pistols in existence, you are very unlikely to find a pre-ban AR pistol lower.
I took that as gospel until recently. I saw a photo of a Mosin Nagant cut down to about a 6" barrel and the stock cut down to a pistol grip only. I thought, Hmm. How is that legal.
So I did some research and came up with the fact that if you register it as a SBR, you are no longer bound by barrel length or overall length requirements.
So. It would seem that if you have a pre-94 ban receiver and register it as a SBR, you can build it up as a pistol. This is clearly not a low cost option. And its not a solution for guys who want a reasonably priced fake SBR using an arm brace, but if you want a true AR pistol in MA, this is an option.
Pretty much impossible. Per the feds, once a rifle, always a rifle. You can't build it as a handgun.
And since pre-94 there were almost zero AR pistols in existence, you are very unlikely to find a pre-ban AR pistol lower.
I took that as gospel until recently. I saw a photo of a Mosin Nagant cut down to about a 6" barrel and the stock cut down to a pistol grip only. I thought, Hmm. How is that legal.
So I did some research and came up with the fact that if you register it as a SBR, you are no longer bound by barrel length or overall length requirements.
So. It would seem that if you have a pre-94 ban receiver and register it as a SBR, you can build it up as a pistol. This is clearly not a low cost option. And its not a solution for guys who want a reasonably priced fake SBR using an arm brace, but if you want a true AR pistol in MA, this is an option.