[Victor]

"...As long as the ATF exists those will never see the civilian market because of their stupid "once a machine gun, always a machine gun" rule......"

Hmmm...if that's true, why is it so easy to get semi-auto AK-47, 74, and 103's...?

[Bidimus1]

the weapons you describe are not really AL-47 etc... but weapons based on them, at no time did the semi-auto’s ever have full auto fire control groups and often have been made to be unable to accept full auto groups (having just the FC group and a weapon for them has been in the past prosecuted as having a Machine Gun

[ctdonath2]

Because the individual items never were machineguns - unlike the M14s, which were.

ATF sees a vast difference between “once was but now isn’t” vs. “never was”.

[Lurker]

Because the civilian versions of those were manufactured as semi-auto only. Original USGI M-14s were manufactured with a selector switch which was later removed and the location for them welded shut.

That doesnt matter to the ATF. “Once a machine gun, always a machine gun” even if there’s no way practical way to convert it back to fully automatic.