Pre-ban/post-ban

Jay says it best:

[I]t'd sure be nice to have an AR-15 with an adjustable stock so that I wouldn't have to swap out my stock every time I wanted someone smaller than me to be able to comfortably shoot my rifle.

Amen. Like many of us, I'm a relatively tall dude. 6'0 or 6'1, depending on how much I'm slouching that day. I have correspondingly long arms. An A2 stock on an AR actually fits me pretty well, as does a standard-length stock on a Remington shotgun. The stock on my Mossberg feels a hair short, but it's tolerable.

Now, MrsZ is closer to average-height; about 5'6". An A2 stock is too long for her (not to mention the upper on that particular rifle is a 20" stainless HBAR with a free-float tube), a pinned carbine stock is essentially the same length, and from there they go down to "entry" length - which is way too short.

But you see, having an adjustable stock so other people can shoot my rifle safely makes it dangerous. Turns it into an assault weapon, as a matter of fact.

Unless it was made before September 1994. Then it's safe. You see, rifles made after that date were forged at Mount Doom, and are imbued with the power of Sauron. Putting on something like a collapsible stock is akin to handing Sauron the One Ring - it's the end of The Shire, Helm's Deep, Rivendell, Mirkwood, Gondor, and pretty much Middle Earth as we know it. There will be carnage, blood in the streets, dogs and cats living together, and quite possibly a hundred-foot-tall marshmallow man.*

All because I wanted a rifle to fit my wife.

This is why stupid laws are stupid.

* - OK, none of those things would happen, but I (and/or whoever had possession of the rifle) could be charged with a Class D felony. Fel-oh-knee. As in, "loss of rights forever and ever amen", "go to jail" felony. Since I don't have a particular attraction to large men named Bubba, this sounds like a losing proposition.