Search:
BATFE Ruling 2011-4 - Pistol to a Rifle and back to a Pistol
August 2nd, 2011

Today, at the NFATCA Firearm Importer, Exporter and Manufacturer Conference, the BATFE announced that Acting Director Melson issued Ruling 2011-4, regarding whether a pistol can be converted to a rifle and then back to a pistol, without having to register the firearm as a short-barreled rifle. While the Ruling has not yet been published, ATF Deputy Chief Steve Albro stated that the Ruling holds that a pistol may be converted to a Title I rifle (non-SBR) and back to a pistol without having to register the firearm as a Short-Barreled Rifle under the NFA. However, if the firearm starts life as a rifle, the Ruling further holds, that it cannot be converted to a pistol without registering it as a Short-Barreled Rifle under the NFA. As soon as the Ruling is posted, I will update this posting with a copy and any additional holdings.

UPDATE: The BATFE has published 2011-4 here
Posted by Joshua Prince Filed in ATF-Firearms Blog, Blog


[This message has been edited by letterman72 (edited 8/4/2011 1:05p).]

I'm so glad we spend billions of dollars so the ATF can make rulings like this. I mean, where would we be if we didn't know the legality of taking a pistol to a rifle back to a pistol? The though horrifies my very being.

Clear as mud. If you start with a lower, I suppose they have to designate it as a rifle or pistol lower, stamped on it somewhere?

Nope, un-assembled Lowers are "other" (the choices being "pistol"; "rifle"; & "other" at manufacture). Once assembled, then it has "identity."

Or did, with the current ruling. Unless they change it.

This is mostly to "fix" the problem B(AT)FE created with the MechTech carbines. Where they said, first, that you could make you glock into a carbine, but could not revers the process without an NFA form. Then, they decided that the MechTech was a separate "upper" by itself.

So, to clear up all the contradicting (and, largely case-by-case) opinions, they have penned the current opinion. Which is only that, not rule nor law.

So, until the current opinion came out, a lower built into a pistol could be built into a carbine or rifle. But, if built as a carbine/rifle, it needed NFA status to become a pistol as if it were an SBR (even though it was not one).

Been wacky to see this online--fave is the dude who was thinking of a carbine upper for a slotted-for-stock HP.