"If you want to build an AR-15 pistol you just put a pistol grip and a short barrel on it. And as a result of those features it will be classified, according to the federal definitions, as a pistol instead of a rifle."
This is wrong on so many levels. It is not that simple to remain legal, in all 50 states.
ATF regulations prohibit just taking a AR-15 lower sold as a rifle, placing a 'pistol' upper on it and be kosher. That's not how it works at all. If a lower was sold OR configured at any time as a rifle, it will ALWAYS be a rifle. That is the law. The actual part of the law that make it thus is in the US code. I will quote, then explain how this matters after the quote.
18 USC § 921 (8):
"The term “short-barreled rifle” means a rifle having one or more barrels less than sixteen inches in length and any weapon made from a rifle (whether by alteration, modification, or otherwise) if such weapon, as modified, has an overall length of less than twenty-six inches."
When an AR-15 is manufactured the rifle they must submit a form 5320.2 to the ATF that declares the type of firearm manufactured and its serial number. If your AR-15 was sold as a rifle, then it will always be a rifle, there is nothing you can do to change that. By placing a pistol length upper on a rifle you have no made a pistol, you have made a Short Barreled Rifle, without the proper tax and paperwork and approval by the ATF you have just made an NFA item, NOT A PISTOL.
Yes, you made a 'pistol' by barrel definition, but if you get caught with it, and the firearm goes though any type of investigation the ATF agent working your case will have some charges to file.
To make an AR-15 pistol it will have had to be manufactured from birth as a pistol. This happens 2 ways, you either buy a already made pistol from a manufacturer, then the documentation will always say it is a pistol, OR you buy a stripped lower, which is documented to the ATF as being an AOW, any other weapon, but technically if you built your lower into a rifle on its original build, then put a pistol upper on it, you would still be in violation, proving that obviously would be much more difficult for the government, I would suggest never to have photographs of said firearm in either configuration, not that I am in any way suggesting anyone violate the law, simply giving advice on never to have photos of your guns floating around, legal or not.
But, the journalist, and 'expert' never intended on actually being honest about AR-15 pistols.
The media always makes these things sound scary as possible and that the ar-15 is somehow unique. Any of number of guns could have easily allowed him to kill as many people as he did and he could have easily killed more with a bomb or even just an 6 or 8 ton vehicle he could easily own, borrow or rent and just plow into a crowd with at speed.
The argument that the gun has a short barrel and can be concealed easier by someone willing to commit a murder is beyond silly. What's so impossible for that same person to commit one more crime and modify any gun by shortening the barrel?
"we must ban the AR-15 pistol because its easy to conceal"
You mean like any other pistol, which are used in 98% of all gun crime?
The same type of weapon used by Seung-Hui Cho, the still reigning champion of the school shooting death count? 2 9mm handguns akimbo style.
The 'assault' weapon bans are never about guns, just about guns you can use to defend yourself against actual armed agents of the government. Guys with rifles do not worry about guys with hand guns.
There is a police shooting video where a guy pulls a handgun on 2 detectives trying to pick him up for a warrant, the detectives retreat to a safe distance and call in a rifle. The 2 cops with rifles then stand out of range, order him several times to drop it, when he raises the gun one cop takes a single shot and downs him. The dumb kid never realized he had no chance, the rifleman was way out of his effective range.
They don't care how many pistols you have when they have optics and a rifle, if you have optics and a rifle, they have a problem.
Suing the Gun Industry: A Battle at the Crossroads of Gun Control and Mass Torts (University of Michigan Press 2005), analyzes tort litigation aimed at reducing gun violence. He has also published articles on the impact of civil lawsuits on climate change.
"If you want to build an AR-15 pistol you just put a pistol grip and a short barrel on it. And as a result of those features it will be classified, according to the federal definitions, as a pistol instead of a rifle."
This is wrong on so many levels. It is not that simple to remain legal, in all 50 states.
ATF regulations prohibit just taking a AR-15 lower sold as a rifle, placing a 'pistol' upper on it and be kosher. That's not how it works at all. If a lower was sold OR configured at any time as a rifle, it will ALWAYS be a rifle. That is the law. The actual part of the law that make it thus is in the US code. I will quote, then explain how this matters after the quote.
18 USC § 921 (8):
"The term “short-barreled rifle” means a rifle having one or more barrels less than sixteen inches in length and any weapon made from a rifle (whether by alteration, modification, or otherwise) if such weapon, as modified, has an overall length of less than twenty-six inches."
When an AR-15 is manufactured the rifle they must submit a form 5320.2 to the ATF that declares the type of firearm manufactured and its serial number. If your AR-15 was sold as a rifle, then it will always be a rifle, there is nothing you can do to change that. By placing a pistol length upper on a rifle you have no made a pistol, you have made a Short Barreled Rifle, without the proper tax and paperwork and approval by the ATF you have just made an NFA item, NOT A PISTOL.
Yes, you made a 'pistol' by barrel definition, but if you get caught with it, and the firearm goes though any type of investigation the ATF agent working your case will have some charges to file.
To make an AR-15 pistol it will have had to be manufactured from birth as a pistol. This happens 2 ways, you either buy a already made pistol from a manufacturer, then the documentation will always say it is a pistol, OR you buy a stripped lower, which is documented to the ATF as being an AOW, any other weapon, but technically if you built your lower into a rifle on its original build, then put a pistol upper on it, you would still be in violation, proving that obviously would be much more difficult for the government, I would suggest never to have photographs of said firearm in either configuration, not that I am in any way suggesting anyone violate the law, simply giving advice on never to have photos of your guns floating around, legal or not.
But, the journalist, and 'expert' never intended on actually being honest about AR-15 pistols.
The media always makes these things sound scary as possible and that the ar-15 is somehow unique. Any of number of guns could have easily allowed him to kill as many people as he did and he could have easily killed more with a bomb or even just an 6 or 8 ton vehicle he could easily own, borrow or rent and just plow into a crowd with at speed.
The argument that the gun has a short barrel and can be concealed easier by someone willing to commit a murder is beyond silly. What's so impossible for that same person to commit one more crime and modify any gun by shortening the barrel?
"we must ban the AR-15 pistol because its easy to conceal"
You mean like any other pistol, which are used in 98% of all gun crime?
The same type of weapon used by Seung-Hui Cho, the still reigning champion of the school shooting death count? 2 9mm handguns akimbo style.
The 'assault' weapon bans are never about guns, just about guns you can use to defend yourself against actual armed agents of the government. Guys with rifles do not worry about guys with hand guns.
There is a police shooting video where a guy pulls a handgun on 2 detectives trying to pick him up for a warrant, the detectives retreat to a safe distance and call in a rifle. The 2 cops with rifles then stand out of range, order him several times to drop it, when he raises the gun one cop takes a single shot and downs him. The dumb kid never realized he had no chance, the rifleman was way out of his effective range.
They don't care how many pistols you have when they have optics and a rifle, if you have optics and a rifle, they have a problem.
https://law.gsu.edu/profile/timothy-d-lytton/