The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Is my foreign semi-auto rifle/shotgun legal?

expeditionx · February 23, 2006, 02:08 PM

A post someone wrote on another forum stated something that never really clicked with me before. The one thing that I got out of it was, the 1989 importation ban was not what stopped reassembly into non-importable weapons. Rather, an act of congress in 1993 created
Sec. 178.39 Assembly of semiautomatic rifles or shotguns.
I hear to often on several websites blame going to Bush Senior for not being able to modify their weapons. Bush Senior wasnt in office in 1993.
Congress of 1993 took it upon themselves to stop American companies from importing and reassembling weapons that they conspired to stop the sale of in the U.S. Bill Clinton was in office when 922 assembly law was formulated according to the date on the legislative entry in codification.

Sec. 178.39 Assembly of semiautomatic rifles or shotguns.
[T.D. ATF-346, 58 FR 40589, July 29, 1993]
http://www.atf.treas.gov/regulations/27cfr178.html

Quote from RDSWriter the post that got my attention:

A little history for you

For those of us who actively collected stuff during the late '80s and early '90s, we remember the period of May 1989 to Nov 1989 when you could buy a neutered Chicom AK and then reconfigure it to an 'unsporting' configuration. Why, because the executive order by Papa Bush only banned importation on features in May - it did not ban re-configuration once it was in the US. When Congress followed his lead in Nov of that year and ATF made it rulings, it ended re-configuration of imported (receiver) firearms by making 'assembly' illegal. Shortly thereafter, you had some companies start to making US receivers since US guns were exempt from the import ban. This existed for for a little over three years.

For reference purposes, the 10-part rule was implemented in 1993 to address the BWEST AK receivers and the Entreprise FAL receivers that people were using to manufacture guns out of entire imported parts kits with US receivers. Up to that point in history the serial numbered part and country of origin determined whether or not it was a US firearm. If the reciever was US, the gun was US. This made it relatively easy to obtain prohibited firearms, so the 10-part rule was created by the ATF. This effectively stopped assembly of US assembled unsporting guns because the 1994 AWB ban came so fast that no one really tooled up to manufacture FCG and furniture kits to address the 10 part rule for imported parts kits.

February 23, 2006, 02:08 PM	#12
expeditionx Senior Member Join Date: July 10, 2004 Posts: 330	A post someone wrote on another forum stated something that never really clicked with me before. The one thing that I got out of it was, the 1989 importation ban was not what stopped reassembly into non-importable weapons. Rather, an act of congress in 1993 created Sec. 178.39 Assembly of semiautomatic rifles or shotguns. I hear to often on several websites blame going to Bush Senior for not being able to modify their weapons. Bush Senior wasnt in office in 1993. Congress of 1993 took it upon themselves to stop American companies from importing and reassembling weapons that they conspired to stop the sale of in the U.S. Bill Clinton was in office when 922 assembly law was formulated according to the date on the legislative entry in codification. Sec. 178.39 Assembly of semiautomatic rifles or shotguns. [T.D. ATF-346, 58 FR 40589, July 29, 1993] http://www.atf.treas.gov/regulations/27cfr178.html Quote from RDSWriter the post that got my attention: A little history for you For those of us who actively collected stuff during the late '80s and early '90s, we remember the period of May 1989 to Nov 1989 when you could buy a neutered Chicom AK and then reconfigure it to an 'unsporting' configuration. Why, because the executive order by Papa Bush only banned importation on features in May - it did not ban re-configuration once it was in the US. When Congress followed his lead in Nov of that year and ATF made it rulings, it ended re-configuration of imported (receiver) firearms by making 'assembly' illegal. Shortly thereafter, you had some companies start to making US receivers since US guns were exempt from the import ban. This existed for for a little over three years. For reference purposes, the 10-part rule was implemented in 1993 to address the BWEST AK receivers and the Entreprise FAL receivers that people were using to manufacture guns out of entire imported parts kits with US receivers. Up to that point in history the serial numbered part and country of origin determined whether or not it was a US firearm. If the reciever was US, the gun was US. This made it relatively easy to obtain prohibited firearms, so the 10-part rule was created by the ATF. This effectively stopped assembly of US assembled unsporting guns because the 1994 AWB ban came so fast that no one really tooled up to manufacture FCG and furniture kits to address the 10 part rule for imported parts kits.