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922(r) Worksheet for AK-47 Builds

The United States has a lovely bit of import law, which prevents most of the more interesting rifle designs from being directly imported into the US. It prevents the direct importation of AK-series rifles, and has ended up creating a market for demilitarized parts kits.

In order for a parts kit to be demilitarized, the original receiver on the weapon must be destroyed in an approved manner (usually torch-cut, with a flame hot enough to remove .25" wide sections of material). The resultant pile of parts is legally no longer a weapon, and can be sold freely throughout the United States.

In order to legally use these parts to construct a new firearm, one must ensure that no more than 10 imported parts remain in the final product. In short, you must replace a number of parts from your parts kit with American-made components.

The sum of all the check boxes in the form below will automatically add themselves up as you click and unclick them. This allows you to easily consider how you can ensure that your rifle is as 922(r) compliant as it needs to be.

NOTE: The default is now for the boxes to start off checked, and you un-check them for each compliance part. When viewing the forum threads which link to this page, I was seeing FAR too many people who weren't reading the instructions, and were only selecting their compliance parts instead of the imported parts as intended! So now all the boxes start off checked and you de-select your compliance parts. Hopefully this will be safer for people who don't/can't/won't read instructions!

Compliance Count for Non-Sporting AK's

Addendums:

• As per an ATF letter located here, magazine parts are not subject to constructive possession. If you need US-made magazine parts in order to reach 10 or fewer imported parts, then you don't have to replace parts on all of your magazines - only the ones which you intend to use with this rifle. The easiest solution is to only own US-made magazines, of course, but this is not always feasible, particularly if no US-made magazines are available for the weapon in question or, for legal reasons, you can't buy domestic full-capacity magazines to replace your old imported magazines.
• The front trunion is merged with the receiver in a milled AK, thus that part doesn't have to be counted twice for compliance.
• The rear trunion is actually not technically a trunion; it is a stock tang. "Trunion" is an old term dating back to cannons (the pegs on the sides of the cannon which allow the cannoneers to alter its elevation), and the term thus refers exclusively to the front trunion, where the barrel is mounted.
• AK's don't have trigger housings, apparently, within the meaning of 922(r).
• Operating rods are used on SKSes, however the AK combines the operating rod and gas piston into one part.
• Sears are combined into the trigger. The few-moving-parts design of the AK-47 contributes to its importability.
• Barrel extensions would only be there if you welded one on, and that'd make it a domestic part.
• If you're building your AK without a pistol grip (IE, you live in California), that's one less part you have to worry about replacing.

Disclaimer: There are no lawyers on this site. At least, none who are writing authoritatively as such. Section 922(r) is clear enough for anyone to read, but if you can't be bothered to read it for yourself, neither of us will take responsibility for your not doing so. This page is presented as a helpful refresher / worksheet, not as a replacement for your personal reading of the law.

-- SeanNewton - 08 Apr 2006