At one museum I worked at (to remain nameless for security reasons) we had an AK-47, brought back from Vietnam. It was an automatic. [Yes, I checked it by holding down the trigger, and working the bolt.] We had it in a locked cabinet in a locked collections area, but I was still concerned.

Unrelatedly, we hired an exhibits prepartor, who happened to be ex-South African army. In passing, he mentioned that his training included field stripping an AK-47.  I said, "Come here, look at this." He said, "Yes, about 1970" and proceeded to take it apart. As he put it back together, I said, "Wait,  leave out the bolt/firing pin." I put that in the museum's bank safety deposit box.

tk

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