One of the most sought after AK-style rifle manufacturers and importers announced it will not be able to stock dealers with its Bulgarian-made, stamped receiver AK clones due to a "sharp increase in violence in places such as Middle East."

"In the recent weeks, Arsenal, Inc. has been receiving a large number of calls and e-mails from our customers and dealers, inquiring about the SLR-107FR and SLR-104UR rifles," the company said in a news release. "Regretfully, the supplies of these models have become scarce in the market."

Arsenal says the need to supply military contracts to forces battling Middle East terrorists has made it impossible to funnel rifles to dealers.

"Due to the current situation in the world and the sharp increase in violence in places such as Middle East and the demand to replenish countries’ militaries to constrain those who cause harm and evil, it has become necessary to shift Arsenal’s full concentration on fulfilling military contracts," the company says. "This has caused sharp, but hopefully a short-lived halt in production of commercial products."

The shortage includes SLR107-31, SLR107-32, SLR107-33, SLR107-34, and SLR107-36 configurations, and all SLR-104UR models with standard 16-inch barrel, including SLR104-51, SLR104-52, SLR104-53, and SLR104-54.

"We hope that the circumstances will normalize soon and these ... popular models will be back in the market again," Arsenal adds.