>>This is highly misleading. Anyone can already buy a stripped lower receiver without going through a FFL and assembling an AR.
Simply not true. The stripped lower receiver of an AR *is* “the gun” legally, and buying one requires BATFE paperwork and background check.
This brings up the whole issue of “what part makes the gun?” With an FAL, for instance, it is the upper receiver that is the serial numbered part that “counts”, and not the lower. I never did understand why the lower was the part on ARs, but that is the deal.
You are correct. The receivers we were looking at were less than 80%, needed drilled and coated.