Liberals Roar As Elizabeth Warren Vows To Mobilize Democrats To Defeat The NRA

[dairydog91]

113. You vastly overestimate the power of the 1994 AWB.

The 1994 ban had three components. First, it prohibited the sale of magazines that could hold more than 10 rounds AND were manufactured after the ban date. The "loophole" here is that the ban allowed the sale and resale of magazines that were manufactured before the ban date, including imports.

Second, it prohibited a list of named weapons. For reasons to do with statutory interpretation, this section was effectively dead on arrival. In order to to prevent this section from applying, a manufacturer needed only to change the name. So if, for example, the "named list" included the "AK-1990" as a banned weapon, a manufacturer could change the name to something like the "SXT-1994" and keep selling the same gun.

Third, it provided a definition of "assault weapon" and banned further sales of weapons that qualified as such. The definition for rifles was a semiauto weapon with a detachable box mag and at least two listed features. Manufacturers responded by creating new versions that had detachable box magazines and only one listed feature. On the AR-15 platform, this typically consisted of removing the bayonet lug and exchanging the flash suppressor for a muzzle brake or smooth barrel. Adam Lanza's AR, for example, was AWB-compliant and could have been sold during the ban.

The idea that the expiration of the ban was an important date in history vastly overstates its impact. My own recollection of the ban expiration was that the weapons on the shelves barely changed. The M4 knockoffs now had actual telescoping stocks, instead of fixed stocks that were made to look telescoping. M-16 knockoffs now had threaded barrels and flash suppressors, but were otherwise identical to what was available during the ban. Magazines got cheaper, but even during the ban they were available.