Did Issa's committee ever even discuss the expiration of the Assault Weapons Ban

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

22. I don't have the time to dig up hard statistics... but

I can say (being a firearm enthusiast in the thick of it all)... the AWB made these "assault weapons" and high cap mags extremely popular.

When the law passed there a run on everything AWB related right off the get go. AR15s, AKs/MAC90s, TEC pistols, magazines... even non AWB banned rifles that simply looked scary became popular (SKS & Mini14). Remember, all preexisting items remained legal as they were grandfathered and the manufactures knew this was coming so they ramped up mfg capacity before the effective ban date. So if it wasn't somewhat popular before the ban, it was sell-out popular during the ban. And the 1st day of the ban warehouses and shelves were stocked with legal pre-ban assault weapon stuff.

And when supply of newly made pre-AWB stuff began to dry up or prices got too high then the items that became popular were the "ban-compliant" models. Items that were still legal and on the ragged-edge of the law. Basically, they were renamed models of then banned firearms with one or two VERY minor changes to make them legal. Common changes for AR15 & AK47 type rifles involved removing a flash hider, pinning the stock (AR15), and grinding off the bayonet lugs (seriously, who uses bayonets anymore). Other than that the rifle mechanisms operated 100% the same, used the same mags, used the same bullets, had the same rate of fire, and basically looked the same. For all intents and purposes, the ban-era rifles were the same as the pre-ban rifles. The only pistols really affected by the ban were the UZI clones, MAC clones, and IntraTEC pistols... and even then just removing the shrouds & barrel threads made them legal again.

As I said before, the only somewhat annoying part of the ban was the 10 round magazine limit. Of course, new and used pre-ban magazines were plentiful and never really got prohibitively expensive so if you owned 2 or 3 for a gun you were set. Even if you couldn't get a hold of a high capacity mag for a decent price, the legal 10 round mags were cheap and it only takes a second or so to swap out a new mag/clip. Basically, it only takes an extra 3-5 seconds to blow off 30 rounds with ban compliant mags when compared to a 30 round mag.

Basically, as you are no doubt beginning to discern, the ban-era assault weapons were 100% just as lethal, scary looking, and rapid firing as the pre-ban "assault weapons". There just plain was no practical real-world difference whatsoever imparted onto the usefulness/deadliness of the guns. So it comes as no surprise that there was NO demonstrable benefit (decrease in crime/casualties) from having the ban in place. At the end of 10 years, Bush stated he would sign the renewal if it made it to his desk. However, the people who supported renewing the ban could not even demonstrate any actual statistical benefits... and congress never voted to renew it. It's not about, "How many expected human lives is it worth for 10,000 "sportsment" to be able to shoot the heads off deer? It's about an AWB that offered nothing to society yet cost many democrats their seats in congress. Pretty poor trade, IMO, and the same thing would happen today if Obama somehow reinstated an AWB.