For about a year now, I’ve wanted an AR-15 rifle yet couldn’t decide between buying one already built or building my own. I thought I had settled on buying one already built, specifically a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 Sport, until I learned that a gun shop fairly close to my house carried stripped lowers in stock. I went by there on Saturday with the wife and purchased a Spike’s Tactical color-filled stripped lower.

I had to wait a couple of hours due to the fact that NICS was down and they didn’t get the issue resolved until later on in the afternoon.
The next thing is to purchase a lower build kit so I can complete the lower and then I plan on buying a completed upper instead of building one. It looks like it’s a lot harder to build an upper than it is to build the lower.