Reply #296: My ban-era AK was new production (it's a 2002 model)--these photos will explain.

[benEzra]

For my own education, how is it possible for BenEzra to buy a civilian-legal AK-pattern rifle during the 'ban'? Were existing legal assault weapons owned prior to the ban exempt from sale and transfer during the ban? Just asking.... no agenda.

My ban-era AK was new production (it's a 2002 model). It is a Romanian SAR-1, my primary target/competition rifle at the moment. This rifle was made and imported in 2002 and I bought it in 2003, during the Feinstein-law era.



You have to understand that the Feinstein law didn't ban any guns whatsoever; rather, it

(1) banned marketing of new civilian rifles under any of 19 banned names (preban rifles exempt);

(2) imposed a features count limit on new civilian rifles (preban rifles exempt).

My rifle was not marketed under a banned name (it's a Romanian SAR-1, SAR standing for semi-automatic rifle), and it passed the features count limit by having a smooth muzzle (a preban rifle would have had a threaded muzzle) and by omitting the little protrusion on the bottom of the gas block (the slanty thing about halfway down the barrel that connects to the upper tube, which is the gas piston tube):



The Feinstein-law-compliant features are circled in red. A pre-1994 or post-2004 rifle, on the other hand, would have a threaded muzzle (for fitting of a recoil reducer, i.e. a muzzle brake), and the bottom of the gas block would stick out more. The standard 30-round magazine in the above photo came with the rifle, and went for about $9.99 in 2003; the compact 20-round magazine in the first photo was $5.99 in 2003.

Here are some photos of a post-2004 civilian AK, a Romanian WASR. If you look closely at photo "C", you'll see that the end of the muzzle has a slant brake on it; the bottom of the gas block is a little hard to see, but should be a little more sculpted than the one on my rifle. A rifle made before Sept. 1994 would look the same.



(Note--I generally don't use the NRA as a resource, but the only decent closeup I could find of a postban AK was from the American Rifleman, so I used it.)

I could find you similar ban-era and postban-era photos of AR-15's, if you'd like.

FTGFN, you are correct that all civilian AK's, AR-15's, etc. made prior to Sept. 1994 were exempt from the name ban and the features limit. However, more civilian AK's were made and imported into the U.S. 1994-2004 than in all the prior years combined (the "ban" probably tripled sales overnight), and the same is true of AR-15 type rifles and most other rifles affected by the law, so that ban-era rifles greatly outnumbered prebans. It was sometime between 1994 and 2004 that the AR-15 became the most popular target rifle in America, as far more AR-15's were sold 1994-2004 than in the previous three decades combined.

BTW, like all U.S.-market civilian AK's (regardless of when made), my rifle is non-automatic, and works just like a Ruger Mini Thirty deer rifle.