Biden and the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban

| August 7, 2020

The Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act *cough* or Federal Assault Weapons Ban was a subsection of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, a United States federal law which included a prohibition on the manufacture for civilian use of certain semi-automatic firearms that were defined as assault weapons as well as certain ammunition magazines that were defined as “large capacity”.

It expired on 13 September 2004 as programmed, after having little effect in curtailing overall criminal activity, illegal firearm use and lethality of gun crimes.

Before I get dog-piled, there are some studies that may show a reduction in mass shootings during that period. Is this enough to go for another bite at the AWB apple?

Joe Biden Plans To Ban and Register ‘Assault Weapons’ but Won’t Say What They Are

The presidential contender says the 1994 ban made mass shootings less lethal, even though the guns it tolerated were “just as deadly.”
JACOB SULLUM

Former Vice President Joe Biden claims the 1994 federal ban on “assault weapons,” which expired in 2004, “reduced the lethality of mass shootings.” Yet the Democratic presidential contender simultaneously concedes that the 1994 law, which was part of a broader crime bill that he sponsored, had no impact on the lethality of legal firearms, which remained “just as deadly.”

In a gun control plan he unveiled today, Biden promises to fix that problem with new legislation that will “prevent manufacturers from circumventing the law by making minor changes that don’t limit the weapon’s lethality.” Since such laws have always been based on arbitrary distinctions that have little or nothing to do with a gun’s capacity to kill people, it is hard to see how he can possibly keep that promise.

Under the 1994 ban, removing “military-style” features such as folding stocks, flash suppressors, or bayonet mounts transformed forbidden “assault weapons” into legal firearms, even though the compliant models fired the same ammunition at the same rate with the same muzzle velocity as the ones targeted by the law. That is also true of the new, supposedly improved “assault weapon” ban sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D–Calif.), who wrote the 1994 law. Feinstein has fiddled with the list of military-style features (omitting bayonet mounts while adding barrel shrouds, for instance), and any one of them would now be sufficient to make a rifle illegal, whereas two were required under the 1994 ban. But the problem identified by Biden remains: Removing these forbidden features results in a gun that is “just as deadly.”

Biden’s plan does not specify how he would improve on Feinstein’s approach. “Federal law prevents hunters from hunting migratory game birds with more than three shells in their shotgun,” he says. “That means our federal law does more to protect ducks than children.”

Take an ill-conceived, ineffective law, make it more onerous, and be surprised when it fails as the 1994 version did. But hey, as long as it saves ONE vote…

Read the rest here: Reason

Category: "Teh Stoopid", "Your Tax Dollars At Work", 2020 Election

19 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Skippy

Let’s see how well media matters handles this

Skippy

And the rest of those swamp turds

KoB

“…federal law does more to protect ducks than children.” Federal Law does more to ensure the wholesale murder of children for the harvesting of their parts. There you go Groping Joe, I fixed it for you…you sissy punk asinine piece of sh^t. Sniff this you sniveling career political parasite. Instead of a ban on assault rifles, why not a ban on kareer kongress kritters. Or, better yet, declare open season on the the SOBs. with no bag limit, and hunting over baited fields (lobbyists offices) allowed.

The only thing the ’94 law did, for me, was to make a $100 used Colt AR 15 platform worth nearly $2K when I desperately needed the funds in ’95.

I repeat, they would not be trying to restrict the availability of these home defense weapons if they were not planning to do something that would cause us to need these types of home defenders. You can bet that DiFi, Groping Joe, and their ilk have a security detail with access to every weapon known to the US Government’s arsenal.

26Limabeans

How does Joe feel about Ammonium Nitrate?
All those deplorables in flyover country can buy
all they want under the guise of food production.
Perhaps only governement allowed farms should be
able to purchase it with a special “hazard” tax
added on to help keep the stuff secure.

Hell, next thing you know you won’t own the water
rights under your own property. Oh wait…….
California already did that.

Anonymous

“If I win, I’m coming for them.” –Joe

Ex-PH2

Oh, Sweetie, I don’t need to own a gun right now. I just need to know that I can get one IF I NEED ONE.

Did you all know that Formula 409 is an excellent household cleaner that not only kills roaches in 10 seconds or less, but also lets you clean up what they leave behind? Would it work on Democraps? Probably not, unless you could convince them that it’s just another hand sanitizer. 🙂

Anonymous

Law-abiding folk in Seattle found they and any ammo has been sold-out for months now. Didn’t beat the rush.

Anonymous

More today (well, yesterday):

Ex-PH2

Gropin’ Joe Biden – wait, isn’t he the one who said he just fires a shotgun off his balcony when someone’s trying to break into his house in Delaware?

Does he ever stay in that house? Does he even know where Delaware is?

Anyone besides me think it’s time that Joe had a nice lie-down for a few hours and then just retired???

Anonymous

Just fire off two blasts or something…

rgr769

He resides in the basement of that house, when he is not outside swimming naked in his pool in front of female Secret Service agents. That house is from whence he issues those unintelligible statements when he is off prompter.

Anonymous

“It’s so nice to be insane, no one asks you to explain.” –Helen Reddy

Combat Historian

Joey will make sure his Assault Weapon ban will allow special exceptions and exemptions for radical leftist gangs and mobs like the BLM and antifas. These groups are exempted from the chicom flu lockdown and allowed to riot and loot; they’ll be exempted from the “assault weapon” ban as well…

Anonymous

Yes. Leftists’ idea of “gun safety” is their opponents do have any.

The Other Whitey

Just imagine how much safer Joe will be if all the women in his vicinity are unarmed!

NHSparky

Democrats are awesome gun salesmen.

Time to put a Sig on my Xmas wish list.

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

Those Springfield Armory Saint .223 hand guns with the folding arm “rests” look cool and pricey. Anyone buy one yet????

NHSparky

MSRP around $900.

You could do worse.

rgr769

If his handlers would let Gropey Joe out of the basement and answer a non-scripted question about what guns he wants to ban, that evil AR14 assault machine gun will be at the top of the list. He will have to read the rest of the list off a teleprompter.