Since I'm new to researching the laws of "assault" weapons I would like an answer to a question I have,
Is it possible to create an NFA firearm or purchase a post 1994 one for personal use legally or are they limited strictly to those already assembled prior to the ban?

It seems there are three questions:
(1)Is it possible to create a NFA firearm for personal use?
(2)Is it possible to purchase a NFA firearm (made after 1994) for personal use?
(3)Are NFA firearms limited to those produced prior to 1994 ban?

These seem like interesting questions for people on this board, but you can find the definitive answers at government sources.

Here's the deal....

As an unlicensed individual, you can buy NFA weapons IF you can get a local CLEO to signoff on your paperwork.  As to what you can buy...

1. Any short bareled shotgun or rifle, regardless of when built/registered
2. Any AOW ("Any Other Weapon"), regardless when built/registered
3. Any Supressor built in the US after 1968, any supressor imported prior to that
4. Any machinegun brought into this country prior to 1968, any machinegun built in this country until 1986
5. Any Destructive Device, regardless of when built/manufactured

What you can make & register yourself (or have a manufacturer do it for you)...

1. Anything except machineguns.

Great post, shaggy.

It should be a FAQ down in the "Full-Auto..." section.

Just reading this would clear-up alot about NFA stuff for the first-timer or as a refresher for old-timers.

For machineguns, the 'magic date' is 5/19/86.  Any machinegun registered on or before that date (except imported dealer sample guns) is transferrable to any individual, depending on local and state laws, of course.

Pre-86 dealer samples are transferrable to any special occupational taxpayer (SOT) and may be retained by the SOT after giving up their SOT status.

Post-86 machineguns are transferrable only to government agencies, for export, or to SOT's with a police demonstration requestion letter, and may not be retained by the SOT after giving up their SOT status.

The 1994 AW ban only affects SEMI-automatic weapons, and then only governs the cosmetic features a grandfathered pre-ban weapon is allowed to have, versus what a post-ban may have.  Machine guns are not semi-automatic, so are not covered by the 94 AW ban.

Short-barrel rifles and short-barrel shotguns which are semi-automatic are covered by both the NFA restrictions (tax, transfer registration, etc) and the cosmetic feature restrictions of the 94 AW ban.

u can build a AR 15 AOW