Mossberg 500 Shockwave Questions on this video I stumbled across.

[Venom1956]

I've been looking at the shockwave Mossberg and this video popped up in youtube. I started watching it and feel like this guy is incorrect in it. He took a full length Pistol grip shotgun and shortened the barrel to SBS requirements. isn't the whole point of the Shockwave that it comes on a virgin receiver from the factory with is intended barrel length grip setup as a 'firearm' not a PG shotgun? You need to fill out the 4473 when you purchase it as a firearm if it was not purchased as that would it be illegal?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaB2RIhCv-4

I just want to know if I am mistaken in my understanding. I've read the attached link and still confused.

[Bill DeShivs]

He says in the video that the gun was a pistol grip only gun. A PG shotgun (factory made) is not a shotgun-it's a "firearm."
What he did is perfectly legal.

[Venom1956]

Ok. I am just making sure I understood it correctly. Thanks Bill. I wasn't sure if a pistol grip shotgun could be 'purchased' differently then just a firearm kinda like AR lowers. They can be both rifles or pistols depending how you do it.

[Theohazard]

Originally Posted by Venom1956

He took a full length Pistol grip shotgun and shortened the barrel to SBS requirements. isn't the whole point of the Shockwave that it comes on a virgin receiver from the factory with is intended barrel length grip setup as a 'firearm' not a PG shotgun?

You're confused here. A PG shotgun that came from the factory like this isn't legally a shotgun. Part of the legal definition of a shotgun involves a stock or being made from a firearm that had a stock. So that means a PG shotgun can't legally be defined as a shotgun, so the minimum barrel length requirements of a shotgun don't apply. A PG shotgun is an other firearm, whether it came from the factory as a receiver or as a PG shotgun. And the legal minimum length for an other firearm is 26"; there's no barrel length minimum.

Originally Posted by Venom1956

You need to fill out the 4473 when you purchase it as a firearm if it was not purchased as that would it be illegal?

It doesn't make any difference how the firearm was purchased or how the 4473 was filled out: A new PG shotgun is not and cannot be a shotgun. If an ignorant dealer sells you a new PG shotgun as a shotgun on the 4473, that doesn't magically make it into a shotgun, it means he screwed up on his paperwork. If someone at the DMV accidentally registers your pickup as a motorcycle, that doesn't mean your pickup is now a motorcycle, it means the guy at the DMV screwed up.

Originally Posted by Venom1956

I wasn't sure if a pistol grip shotgun could be 'purchased' differently then just a firearm kinda like AR lowers. They can be both rifles or pistols depending how you do it.

AR lowers are receivers. A receiver is simply a type of firearm. And a virgin AR receiver can only be purchased one way; as a receiver. You can't purchase it as a rifle or as a pistol.

When the 4473 is filled out, the dealer doesn't get to just decide what kind of firearm it is, he has to put on the 4473 what type of firearm it actually is at that time.