Bill,
Since the safety will not come back, I have seen the head of the safety lever (in the stock) come out of the little square in the safety slide which is below the top tang and is connected to the safety button. It then binds and this prevents the lever from opening due to the rod for the automatic safety blocking it. This is if you cannot move the opening lever until you have shaken the lever back into the square. Suspect that the screws both on top and under the lower tang were not tight and I've seen it on a restocked gun that the stock was too thick and thus the lever was made too short.
But just a guess based on limited info.
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