Century Arms is a good company. I shop there from time to time, and drool over some of the stuff on their website. They deal in antique, curio and relic, and some older East-bloc firearms.
IMHO, they were (are?) gambling on the AW Ban sunset. When the AWB sunsets they want to be the first to offer some nice semi-auto AK stype weapons with all the trappings (30 round magazines, bayonets, pistol grips, etc.) that have been banned for so long. It won't make them a fortune, but it has the potential to make them a tidy profit. Can you blame 'em? Personally, I think its great that they work so hard (and risk so much) anticipating the customer's wants.
This is just a combination of anti-gun bias, anti-terrorist hysteria, and some fuddled paperwork. Literally, there is nothing to see here - Move along!">
You called it; right on the money. From FReeppost and articles following:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1127236/posts
AK-47s Headed to U.S. Had Legal Permits
Posted on 04/30/2004 6:09:51 AM MDT by FooBarBaz
AK-47s Headed to U.S. Had Legal Permits
Wed Apr 28, 4:13 PM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!
By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - A U.S.-bound shipment of thousands of AK-47 assault rifles and other combat-type weapons, seized by Italian authorities who suspected they were being smuggled, actually have legal permits to be imported, American officials said Wednesday.
About 7,500 AK-47s, AKM rifles and other weapons worth an estimated $6 million were seized April 20 aboard a Turkish-flagged ship in the port of Gioia Tauro. They were bound for New York from Romania.
At the time, Italian authorities said the guns were hidden aboard the ship.
But Andrew Lluberes, spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the weapons actually were cleared by U.S. authorities. "The permits are valid," he said.