The Deadline is for California residents. If the gun is not in the Golden State by Dec. 31, 1999, it's not suppose to come here at all.
Building your own is lotsa fun and takes only one evening once you have all the parts. The lower takes a little over 1 hour and the upper about the same amount of time.
You won't need too many specialized tools to assemble your own AR. The lower requires some
roll pin punches, 4 oz ball peen or 6 oz brass hammer, some screwdrivers and a torque wrench. The upper requires more tools or fixtures. The barrel must be torqued onto the upper receiver and you'll need a special
armorer's wrench for it. You also need
snap ring pliers for the snap ring which goes onto the barrel. You won't need to buy either an upper receiver vise block set or a barrel vise jaw set. Find the diameter of the barrel, drill a piece of wood to match and then cut that wood on a tablesaw. Voila. Barrel blocks as described by Walther J. Howe in his gunsmithing book.
For manuals, get the USMC Manual on the AR. It goes for $5 at gunshows. You really don't need it since you can get the info on line at ar15.com. In fact, almost all information you seek can be found there (check our links).
http://www.ar15.com is an excellant board for you to check into.
Have fun.
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