I'll be the first to admit I know very little about gun laws in the U.S., so if you reply to this, bear in mind I'm only repeating what I heard from a gun dealer up here in Kanada.

I was in a gun store in Edmonton, Alberta, and was considering purchasing an AR15. On the wall were three colt AR-15 A3's. The dealer told me the rifles were illegal for sale to civilians in the U.S., but were legal in Kanada.

I thought, and still think the lady was/is full of sh*t. Is this the case?

I did end up purchasing one of the rifles, and when I got it home, I noticed the following stamped into the aluminum:  Restricted  Military/government/law enforcement/export use only.  

The rifle is a Colt AR-15 A3 Tactical Carbine, if that helps any.

BTW, the rifle is great, but shooting with 5rd mags is a real bitch.

Gotta love Socialism. =(

If they have bayo lugs thats why. Also Colt no longer sells to us lowley civies. Its not illeagle to own one just illeagle to have one with preban features.

Yes, in 1994, our wonderful Congress decided to pass what is known as the 1994 Crime Bill.  In it, there are provisions that make certain types of features illegal for civilians, and manufacturers cannot manufacture them for civilian use which is why you have that stamp on your Colt.

Basically, the law works out that any rifle with a detachable magazine can only have a total of one of the following features before your gun becomes an evil "assault weapon."

1. Pistol grip
2. Flash hider or barrel threaded to accept a flash hider (this includes suppressors)
3. Bayonet lug
4. folding or telescoping stock
5. ability to accept a grenade launcher

Since the AR-15 has a detachable magazine, it can only have one other feature on that list.  Since the pistol grip is required, that's all the features it can have.  A flash hider/threaded barrel, bayonet lug, folding stock, and ability to accept a grenade launcher are features that cannot be manufactured into a civilian gun built after September 13, 1994.  This is why we Americans have what we call "pre-ban" and "post-ban" rifles.  A pre-ban can have all of those features and there is no problem, but you have to prove that it was manufactured before 9/14/94.

Fortunately, this ban has a 10 year limit built into the law that expires on 9/13/04.  So, provided nothing replaces the ban, we can have all those evil features again.

The only exception to this rule is if you put a registered DIAS, making the gun a machine gun.  Then you can do whatever you want with it that can be done with a machine gun, including putting a sub-16" barrel on it.  Unfortunately, you still have to build up a post-ban gun into the config you want, as civilians cannot get a post-ban rifle with pre-ban parts on it from any manufacturer that I know of.  So you'd have to get a pre-ban upper with the features you wanted on your machine gun.

Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...

Well if  Restricted Military/government/law enforcement/export use only is stamped on the reciever. We can not have those rifles becuase they are according to our Government more dangerous. We can not have AR-15's with Bayonet lugs, Flash Surpressors, Telescoping stocks, or threaded barrels. Our Government think that removing those items makes them safer and they will not be used in Crimes. In Canada you can have those things but are stuck with 5 round mags only. We can not have thoe items on the rifle but we can still get our hands on 30 round mags.

So, where do you even buy NATO rifle grenades? They ain't even used in Amerika...

Scott

If I had to choose, I would give up the features just to be able to use high cap. mags. I do have a bunch of 30rd mags, pinned to 5rds, but the rivets pop out easily. However, since this is a restricted firearm, and restricted firearms can ONLY be used at an approved range, there isn't much point in popping the rivets, as I would probably get busted.

As bad as it may be down there, at least your government put an expiry date on the ban. Things up here tend to be permanent.

Do you think George W. is interested in annexing Kanada? We have lotsa oil! And diamonds, and timber, and water... ;)