That article says nothing about the police assembling a rifle out of parts he had. It says that he flashed a gun, and when they searched the car, they found an unregistered SBR. Do you have a better link that describes anything like what you posted earlier? And I mean an actual government document or a news story, not just some gun guys like us making guesses about it on the internet. I'm curious what the real deal is here, and whether there is any evidence that the guy actually had a pile of unassembled parts in the car, complete with multiple uppers and lowers that could be legally assembled.
Also, the Thompson/Center case addressed whether a bunch of gun parts are considered an NFA weapon if it is possible to assemble an NFA weapon out of them. They held that if the parts can be assembled to make non-NFA weapons, and not JUST NFA weapons, then there is no crime, and ruled in favor of Thompson/Center. Thompson/Center got into trouble because they had the parts necessary to make pistols, and also the parts necessary to make rifles (just like if you had a rifle lower with a stock and a pistol lower, and also a short barreled-upper and a long-barreled upper). You have parts that are intended to be assembled in just two ways, but by swapping some of them, you could in theory assemble them in a third, illegal, way. But just because you CAN put the rifle lower and stock and the short upper together, doesn't mean that you will, and as long as you have the lowers necessary to legally mate with the uppers, you are not guilty of possessing an NFA weapon. However, if you ONLY had a rifle lower and stock, and ONLY had the short-barreled upper, then you are guilty of possessing an NFA weapon. It's all spelled out in this article that was written by the attorney who argued the case in front of the Supreme Court on behalf of Thompson/Center:
"The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Contender pistol and carbine kit are not a short-barreled rifle under the National Firearms Act, 26 U.S.C. §5845(a)(3). This means that a consumer may possess the pistol with its 10” barrel and may use the kit parts to make a rifle with the 21” barrel, as long as the shoulder stock is not assembled onto the receiver at the same time as the 10” barrel.
Justice Souter, joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice O’Connor, wrote the opinion of the Court. The Court stated the issue to be whether a short-barreled rifle is “made” by the aggregation of finished parts that can be readily assembled.
The government noted that a bicycle is still a bicycle even when unassembled. The Court rejects this analogy, because the Contender items can be assembled three different ways, and are intended to be assembled only two ways.
Justice Souter wrote that “a set of parts that could be used to make nothing but a short-barreled rifle” would, if there is an “aggregation” of such, be a short-barreled rifle. The opinion states that “a combination of parts that could only be assembled into an NFA-regulated firearm” would be such a firearm.[1] Further, a non-NFA gun becomes an NFA firearm if “placed together with a further part or parts that would have no use in association with the gun except to convert it into a firearm.” As examples, the court mentions a carbine with a machinegun conversion kit,[2] and a pistol and attachable shoulder stock found in different drawers of the same dresser."
Complete article here:
http://stephenhalbrook.com/tc.htmlAnd I agree 100% with your suggestion of transporting everything in separate cases, and especially not giving anyone a reason to stop or search you. That's great advice!