What exactly makes an AR-15, an AR-15?

[alfsauve]

Consider the picture of the control part of a gun.



Is this an AR-15?  

Is it even a rifle, or is it a pistol?

Is it a bolt action rifle?

Or even a cross-bow?


I wonder how NY's laws and the proposed federal ban are going to work out on this?  

Can people keep their uppers?  Can they swap out an AR-15 upper for a bolt action and keep the lower?

Can I file paperwork and pay the "tax" to convert an AR-15 to a pistol and keep it?  Under NY law?  Under Obama law?



Hmmmm

[WatchManUSA]

Under current law the pictured part is a receiver buy ATF.  If you have a complete lower (receiver, trigger, pistol grip, butstock) it is defined as a rifle by the ATF.

[alfsauve]

Not if the manufacturer paid an extra tax, then it's a pistol.

But what kind?  Because what it ends up being depends on the upper.

If I'm in NY and I put a bolt action upper on it, is it an AWB  subject to the new laws?

Can I keep the semi auto upper as long as I don't put it on he lower?

[WatchManUSA]

Not if the manufacturer paid an extra tax, then it's a pistol.

I beg to differ. I fill out 4473 all day long. The ATF 4473 definitions are a constant. A stripped receiver is defined as a receiver. A complete lower is a rifle. A pistol can't have a butt stock. If it does it is a SBR and must have paperwork.

[alfsauve]

Okay, I'm bad.  You're right if a "receiver" (a lower) that has never had a stock mounted on it, is bought, and documented as such, then you can build it either into a rifle or pistol.   But if you assemble it as a rifle first you cannot make it into a pistol later.   But if you make it into a pistol first then you can go either way later.   

I mistakenly thought the determination was made by the manufacturer.  But that's only so if they assemble it into a rile.  If they sell it virgin then the buyer gets to decide.

BUT THE QUESTION REMAINS.    How do NY and Feinstein's proposed laws treat a virgin lower?

Are they assuming it is automatically an AR?  What if, when "they" come knocking I don't have an upper.  What if I only have a bolt action or cross bow upper?  What if I have assembled it as a bolt action but have an AR upper in the back of the safe?  Does their definition of AWB include pistols or just rifles?   Is this a loop hole?

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