AK-47 and the MA Law

Well it would be easy for them to prove if its never on a pre-94 FFL book as a rifle. Then the onus would shift to you to prove that it was a rifle prior to the cutoff. Good luck with that! I've never heard of it happening either - yet.
Burden of proof in most criminal procedures is on the state to make it's case. They would also have to find someone at the ATF that actually cared. The state ain't getting the BB / 4473 without fed involvement, most of the time. Think about the amount of work required to even prove that....
 
Lol, how do you intend on doing that when your AK receiver was "made recently" ? This new gun was "manufactured' now, not back then. Either under MGL or the old fed law that would
not have worked, at least not by the letter of the law. Whether you care or not is another story, but I suspect you do, because you actually bothered to ask.

Additionally, 922R is a whole other ball of wax and irrelevant in this context, so you should push that out of your mind for the moment.

Thank you for clarifying, I was just speaking theoretically. The difference from ARs to AKs is that the AK kits were previously assembled rifles, imported minus the receiver, but I guess because they weren't assembled in the US, it is irrelevant.
 
Re: AR lowers. Of course it was assembled and registered as a rifle previously. Too bad the state lost so many of the paper fa10 records...
 
Re: AR lowers. Of course it was assembled and registered as a rifle previously. Too bad the state lost so many of the paper fa10 records...
You can choose to believe this, but it isn't really true. The "big loss" was ~30K blue cards (pre-1998) only . . . info directly from FRB Director at that time. I'm sure that some got damaged/lost since then (before requiring electronic only), but not any significant number.
 
So im new to the gun world so I’m reading this old post because I have my eyes on an ak74 on broker,, it’s a 1993 “parts kit” with a modern receiver. But after looking into this even tho it is stamped 1993 it seems I won’t be able to obtain it in ma because of the modern receiver?
 
So im new to the gun world so I’m reading this old post because I have my eyes on an ak74 on broker,, it’s a 1993 “parts kit” with a modern receiver. But after looking into this even tho it is stamped 1993 it seems I won’t be able to obtain it in ma because of the modern receiver?

Yep. That's about the size of it.

The age of the receiver is all that matters. The parts from the kit do not.
 
Yep. That's about the size of it.

The age of the receiver is all that matters. The parts from the kit do not.
For AWB compliance, yes.

If it's a bare receiver, it's not (currently) a firearm in MA. In that case, a knowledgeable dealer might make the transfer. If it's an assembled firearm (maybe I'm just having difficulty with reading comprehension?) then you're definitely out of luck.
 
So im new to the gun world so I’m reading this old post because I have my eyes on an ak74 on broker,, it’s a 1993 “parts kit” with a modern receiver. But after looking into this even tho it is stamped 1993 it seems I won’t be able to obtain it in ma because of the modern receiver?

Ask the seller to sell without the receiver?
 
Ok-I think I understand.

1)Any of the "Post Ban" AK variants are LEGAL in MA. These would include the WASR, SAR, ROMAK, etc. That's why in the description everyone also upfront describes it as "post ban" Does Post Ban mean the actual firearm was manufactured post 1994? Does that what post ban mean? Does it matter when it was imported into the country?

2) While Post Ban AK variants are legal the high capacity magazines manufacturered after Sept 1994 are not. The reason that the WASR 10 advertised by Four Seasons and Others is legal to have a high 30 capacity magazine is it must have been manufactured Pre-Ban correct? What threw me is that the mag looked brand spanking new. That was where some of my confusion was coming from.

It would be appreciated if you could confirm my understanding.
Just stumbled upon this after looking into buyin an SAR post ban configuration. Any insight 19 yeara later if this is legal?
 
The law hasn't changed since then, so yes - still legal.

What has changed is AG Healey's press conference in 2016 where she declared that she has a novel new interpretation of the 1994 law, and that most of the semi-auto stuff we've been buying since then is illegal, but out of the goodness of her black scheming heart she's not going to enforce that against any of us unindicted felons for weapons bought before the press conference. No changes were made to the law, and to my knowledge no one has been charged under her new interpretation to test it in court.

You'll see some talk of 'pre-healey' rifles, some of that discussion is here. A good working theory as to why no one has been charged is that it's unlikely her interpretation would stand up., and she didn't want to be seen losing a gun case. A lot of legal attention was paid to this law nationally in 1994 when the federal AWB (that MA copied) was stood up, and nobody came up with her interpretation as a valid one. Her press conference did have some chilling effect on some people and shops in MA, but that's been diminishing since 2016. If whoever you're dealing with starts talking about 'pre-healey', just walk away. You could see the 2016 press conference as raising the risk slightly, but it did not change the law since 1994. Hell, being a gun owner in MA is it's own risk, and as I see it the healey garbage only raised that slightly.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom