hrm, i know about the mac 90's, but i was in a local store a week ago that were selling what they labeled as ak47's. from what little i've seen around, they're not completely banned (although they may be due to local laws).
at any rate, they may have had some mac 90's, but they had a russian ak and a new ak. the only thing that i thought was odd, the new one was in a strange caliber if i remember right, like 5.54 or 5.56x39, something like that. seemed odd at the time.
the new one of course complies with the assault weapons ban of '94.
i don't really know a ton about ak's, because they haven't really much interested me until lately. what's the deal with like the SAR-1 & 2's? perhaps the standard ak is banned completely, but these are more politically correct versions available to the public?
the new one i believe was of US manufacture, so that would make sense. in '94 i know clinton banned almost all munitions imports from china, so it's probably much more difficult these days to get anything from that neck of the woods.
anyways, not sure i'd spend $600 on a brand new plasticy-cool ak when i could spend an extra $200 on a rock river arms car-15 20" hbar. not sure why, but they switched from bushwacker to rra, said they're more reliable than bw, and they claim as good or better build than colt. who knows. no muzzle brakes like the bushwackers tho :/
edit: on a more interesting note, i guess the awb expires in sept '04?? i highly doubt that it will not be re-newed, but there can always be hope
and i see it sounds like that class 3 firearms manufactured after may 19, 86 cannot be owned by civilians at all,, that's messed up. if you're going to go through all that work to obtain them, and pay their exorbitant prices for the item itself, you should be able to have it, lol.