During the federal ban, the ATF determined that stripped lowers possessed before the ban could not be assembled into pre-ban configuration after the ban. Their reasoning was that the ban banned an entire class of weapon, so if you didn't possess a complete weapon with the banned features prior to the ban, you weren't exempted.
In other words, we were dealing with two different definitions. That of a firearm, which the lower meets, and that of an "assault rifle", which requires all the "evil features".
Make sure that you won't end up in a similar situation with your state law before you purchase that lower!
Regards,
Scott
