re: My Uncle Has A Full Auto AK-47 From the 80’s, But No Class 3 License

I’m just giving him options for how to legally possess the gun in some form. Idk why everyone has a problem with that. Sorry I don’t want to advise someone to do something that would land them in prison for 10 years.

You should talk to a lawyer (not me) about this. Even posting this on a public website without a masked IP address is a risk for your uncle. The ATF has a hard on for going after peaceful citizens for NFA violations and the penalty is 10 years in prison per guilty count.

If it was not registered pre-1986, it is contraband and you cannot own it. I wouldn't get myself or my kids anywhere near it if you come to discover that it is not registered; it's akin to being around a $50,000 pile of heroin.

Source: I have a decent amount of experience with the NFA, trusts, and full auto weapons. There are sometimes ways to donate it to a museum, etc.

This is not legal advice.

If it’s a real full auto then there would be a third hole drilled through the receiver to accommodate the auto sear. The ATF considers any gun that has a third pin hole to be a machinegun regardless of whether or not the trigger is actually capable of firing in full auto. And you can’t just weld up the third pin hole and be legal either because the ATF determines that once a receiver is a machinegun it is always a machinegun regardless of whether you remove the full auto capability or not.

So basically yea you could change the trigger group out to a semi auto one and it would fire like a semi auto gun. But it would still be just as illegal as it was with the full auto trigger group installed. That’s why I said in a earlier post that the only legal way to convert to semi auto is to de-mill the current gun and rebuild it on a new semi auto receiver.

It’s a really stupid rule the ATF made and it’s why they can’t import some AK based rifles that were never designed to be full auto even in their military form. Some guns like the military surplus PSL rifles can’t come in because they use a third pin to hold an out of battery safety and the ATF won’t allow it even though the guns were never capable of full auto fire.

Yea if it’s a transferable AK then it’s probably worth around $30k. There weren’t a whole lot of AKs available in the US prior to 1986 and even fewer that people had legally converted to full auto and registered. A lot of AKs in the machinegun registry were vet bring back guns from Vietnam.

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Provided it is a transferable full auto AK yes it is.
No different than a silencer or SBR to the government.

That one little thing about it being transferable is the key.
The reason more transferable full autos aren’t owned by people is not the process but the price of the weapons. That gun, if transferable, is worth $30,000 -50,000.

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All true. I’m still going with no.

just curious how many people dishing out advice have ANY tax stamps....

seems like a blend of helpful people and a lot of paranoid mofos

call the attorney that was suggested multiple times, hell help you out.

Give us an update when you do...my money is on a redneck mod auto, not a Vietnam bring back

If it IS transferable, you might want to 1) try to have him gift it to you before he dies, in writing, or 2) make sure it is specifically bequeathed to you in the latest version of the will (or codicil)

Not to sound greedy, but you don't want there to be a family battle over it once other aunts and uncles determine the value, if uncle really wants it going to you

Might not want to be advertising your possession of that Gulf War bring back.