When the Chief of the BATF Technology Branch says something is illegal.......you can bet I take it seriously!
You feel like flirting with a federal felony.....be my guest!
So, we have a choice......we can believe the word of some "small fish", or we can believe a letter that the Chief of the BATF Technology Branch put his signature on.......
Difficult choice???? I don't think so......
Posts: 1499 | Location: NE Okla | Registered: 22 May 2002
It is stupid, but really very simple. You can take a pistol Encore or Contender (or anything else) and put on a 16 inch or longer barrel and rifle butt stock and be perfectly legal so long as OAL is 26" plus. You can convert a pistol into a rifle and back into a pistol as much as you want, so long as you do not put the shoulder stock on with a barrel of less than 16 inches. The stupid part is, if the frame was sold as a rifle (and the pistol and rifle frames are identical) then it cannot be used with a barrel shorter than 16 inches and an OAL less than 26 inches UNLESS it is registered as an SBR NFA weapon. I know it is stupid, but once a frame is registered as a rifle, it is always a rifle and must be SBRed to go less than the 16"/26" rules. But if the frame was sold as a pistol, then it is perfectly OK to put a rifle barrel and stock on it so long as the barrel is 16"+ and OAL is 26"+. That letter from the ATF was in regards to a gun sold as a rifle, and they said NO. But if it had been sold as a pistol and the owner wanted to convert it to a rifle, then that would have been OK. There are no Federal rules governing the length of a barrel used on a pistol, so you could use a rifle length barrel (16"+) with a pistol grip, and you can turn it into a carbine by adding the shoulder stock, but you cannot use a pistol barrel (normally <16") with a shoulder stock.
