Man this is the most mis-information I’ve ever seen on a thread in all my years on freerepublic! The best advise on this is to go to the AR15.com website and a simple search of gun laws for Texas on the web should tell you what you want to know. As for building the AR-15 up from scratch here is a web site that has detailed videos of all you’ll need to do and the tools you’ll need to complete it:
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/lid=11004/guntechdetail/How_to_Build_An_AR-15_Video
I looked into this a while ago but living in CA makes it impossible so just gave up and will have to be satisfied plinking with my 10/22. Be warned that the cost of the tools may not make it worth the hassle and would recommend that you just buy a completed AR-15 from someone willing to sell it to you, much better bang for the buck that way.
Man, THAT's the truth!
Conflicting info, fo sho'. Definitely a lot to wade through.
And really, all I wanted was some advice on building one...