Recently a client contacted me to ask whether the addition of a carbine buffer tube to an AR pistol build would somehow transform the pistol into a short barreled rifle (SBR).
This question illustrates just how much confusion there is in the NFA community concerning the distinction between certain pistol configurations (which simply result in Title I firearms) and SBRs which are subject to registration under the National Firearms Act.
I will be writing more about specific questions regarding this topic but as for today’s question … per the ATF Firearms Technology Branch, so long as the receiver has never been transferred or configured as a rifle and therefore is eligible to be configured as a pistol then it does not matter what buffer tube you use so long as you are not in possession of a buttstock that “could readily be installed” on the resulting pistol.
