State firearm legislation and non-fatal injuries: What’s the relationship?

[benEzra]

22. Ignorance of Firearms Law, Exhibit A.

"For the 10 years that the ban was in effect, it was illegal to manufacture the assault weapons described above for use by private citizens."

No, it was NOT illegal to manufacture AR-15's and civilian AK's for sale to private citizens. It was only illegal to manufacture new AR-15's and civilian AK's and call them "Colt AR-15" or "Poly Technologies AK-47" (or 17 other naughty names), or to manufacture a new AR-15 or civilian AK and fit them with more than one scawwy feature (e.g. a pistol grip was OK, but a pistol grip plus a bayonet lug was verboten for new production).

I bought a brand new (2002 manufactured, 2002 imported) 7.62x39mm civilian AK in 2003, during the Feinstein non-ban. To comply with the Feinstein law, it had a smooth muzzle (no brake, though a pin-on brake would have been legal) and the catch on the bayonet lug was ground smooth. That's one of these, a Romanian SAR-1:



Note the lack of bayonet lug and a smooth muzzle, which made it ban-legal 1994-2004; mine looked just like that. It came with a newly imported ex-Warsaw-Pact 30-round magazine and a rare, newly imported 40-round RPK magazine (collector's item). Spare magazines were only $5.99 for 20-rounders and $9.99 for 30-rounders, since they could be freely imported under the Feinstein law.

It was a great rifle to shoot, plenty accurate for 200-yard plinking, though you had to allow for the drop of the low-velocity cartridge (muzzle velocity of 7.62x39mm out of a 16" barrel is only 2350 ft/sec). I shot competitively with it until I eventually upgraded to an AR, and I eventually sold the SAR-1 to come up with a down payment on my current residence. Of all the guns I've ever sold, I'd buy that one back first. Mine had a Kobra optic, which was a neat piece of history in its own right.

Thing is, many millions of people did what I did. The AR-15 platform became one of the top selling rifles in the United States between 1994 and 2004, thanks in large part to Ms. Feinstein's misguided holy war against them. AK imports from Europe skyrocketed after 1994.

The net result was that after 1994, "assault weapons" as currently defined became *more* available and common, not less, and that rise in popularity has continued to the present day. If you dislike the current popularity of the AR-15 platform vs. (say) the Ruger Mini-14, thank Ms. Feinstein and Mr. Schumer; they greatly speeded their adoption into the mainstream in the mid and late 1990s.

" the measure's prohibition on high-capacity clips (sic) was probably its most effective provision."

The Feinstein law didn't affect the availability of 30+ round magazines for AR's and AK's *at all*. During and after 1994, tens or hundreds of millions of 20- and 30-round military surplus magazines for AR's, AK's, CETME's, G3's, FAL's, M1A's, etc. etc. etc. were imported from Europe, perfectly legally. This influx kept the rifle magazine market saturated, and gun owners well supplied.

The *only* guns which the 1994 Feinstein fraud significantly affected magazine prices for were those that (1) used nonstandard magazines and (2) were new enough on the market that there weren't large stockpiles of magazines to go around. Over-10-round Glock magazine prices quintupled, but you could still buy as many as you wanted; my wife paid over $100 for a Glock 19 magazine during the ban era, but could have bought twenty of them if she wanted to devote the funds to do so. Pro-gun police departments helped out civilian owners by trading their used 15+ rounders for post-1994 ones, so that the pre-'94s could be sold to civilians, but even that wasn't really necessary; manufacturers had produced decades' worth of supply prior to the ban's enactment, and doled them out as prices warranted. It was certainly a big moneymaker for distributors. Smith & Wesson and Beretta 15+ round magazines were cheaper, as I recall, because they had been around longer at the time.

Had the ban gone on longer, a black market in magazines could have eventually developed in another decade or three, but that was never an issue.

The gun industry did downsize some popular models to take advantage of the dimunitive "Clinton Clips", which gave rise to the extra-concealable Glock 26, and some people decided to simply upsize their caliber instead of paying for more expensive wondernine magazines (hence the increase in popularity of the .40 S&W and .45 ACP during that time). But anybody who wanted full-capacity magazines could legally buy them, and we did.