Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Wandering the gunshops with an out-of-town visitor today. At the gunshop a fella came in to buy a lower to match an upper he’d purchased. He opened the gun case to show the upper to the gun store guy. Oh it was an upper all right…..14.5″ barrel, M4 cut, and a full-auto bolt carrier as well as Knight’s rails and some cool flip up rear sight. Yup…it appeared to be stolen mil property. (and the story I overheard was “…bought it from a guy in the army…”) I was half expecting the guy behind the counter to say “Close that up and get it out of my store…NOW.” But he calmly explained to the guy that he might wanna call ATF and turn it in before he shows it to the wrong person (or assembles the damn thing) and steps on his own dick. I heard the term “I urge you…” more than once.

Moral: stuff like that is out there. And although this guy may have bought it in a cloud of blissful ignorance about the law, it’s also just as possible someone there had a microphone taped under their jacket lapel. No matter how tempting, how good the price, or how well you know the guy….walk the frak away and do not look back.

Nice looking upper though………