What we're talking about isn't really an obscure issue, nor is it open to interpretation given the Supreme Court decision. A short barrel in and of itself isn't an NFA item - it becomes one when you put it under the same roof with all the other parts to make an SBR and no way to otherwise use it legally.
There are some common situations that I think would be much closer calls. For example, lets say that somebody has a couple of title I AR-15 rifles, then he registers an AR-15 SBR as well and has one upper for it of the length that he has on his forms. No problem so far. Lots of folks in this position.
Now suppose he goes and buys a "spare" short upper of the same length for his SBR, maybe to use as a dedicated upper for a suppressor or whatever, or just because he wants another one. He can't possibly use two uppers at once on the one registered lower, and so one might reasonably interpret having more than one short upper per "qualifying lower" (pistol/SBR/machinegun) along with a title I rifle as possession of an unregistered SBR. That is exactly what Ed Owen, the (now former) head of the tech branch said in that 2000 letter I linked to before. No court has said this as far as I know, but ATF thinks it's an issue.



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