I was told this weekend that my plan to build an AR from a parts kit and an 80% receiver could land me a stay in the Federal Prision system.

I live in Pennsylvania.

I thought a private citizen could build one gun a year as long as they would register it.

Who told you this?  They're wrong.

No registration is required unless your state requires it for some reason.

You don't even have to mark it with your name or a serial number - again, unless your local or state law requires it.

You cannot make the rifle for the purpose of resale - it must be for personal use only.

You can't make a banned assault weapon configuration - must be "post-ban" legal.

It was a LEO. He is PRO gun and on my side.
He just didn't want me to get in trouble.
He said it is legal to build bolt action or brake open type rifles but not AR-15 semi-autos.

Maybe he could quote you the US/State code or statute that limits a person to only building bolt or break-open type of firearm.

As an LEO/SWAT Operator, I can tell you that this is absolutely correct.  I have a lot of real-world operational experience in shooting and using firearms.  I am well-versed in my state laws concerning firearms (i.e. barrel lengths on rifles/shotguns, when a pistol may/may not be carried, etc.) but I know very little about the Federal firearms laws.  In my experience, there's a lot of self-proclaimed gurus in the law-enforcement world who really don't know what they are talking about.  I hate it when I hear my fellow LEO's giving citizens information on firearms that I know for a fact to be flat wrong.  I do my best to correct misconceptions where I can; both with citizens and fellow Officers.  When it comes to firearms in general, the sad truth of the matter is that the average patrol officer knows very little about even the basic use of firearms much less the realities of the Federal laws.  Luckily, I have not relied only on my basic training in the Academy for my firearms skills.  I readily admit my ignorance when it comes to Federal firearms laws and I am looking to remedy this problem.  So far, you guys here at AR15.com have been a great help in in my continuing education.  Hopefully, I can become a member of a rare third group of LEO's:  Those who can both shoot competently and who can quote the Federal firearms laws chapter and verse.

There aren't many of those. [:\]

Let's make a list:

1) Swatdog

An unfortunately short list!

Let's try looking it up.  Go to [url]www.state.pa.us[/url] and look for a link to the laws, the statutes, the judiciary, the legislation or something like that.  Then find the listing of the PA statutes.  Do a search on "manufacturing + firearem" or whatever the search engine wants.  

TA DA.

Norm

I had to try it.  Went from the pa.state.us page to the "gov't in PA" page and did a search for "statutes" at the top of the gov't page.  That lead me to a specific statue on another website and I hit their "search button,  That put me here: [url]http://www.pacode.com/secure/search.asp[/url] .

I searched for "firearm" and got 50+ links.  Maybe one of those has the real poop.  Maybe "homemade and firearm" would do it.

Norm

Dude if you have a receiver and pass the check then your fine, the ATF looks at a receiver as a gun so if you have one you have a gun what ever you put on it is your deal.
As long as you stick to the per-ban/post-ban crap your cool.