"Assault weapon" numbers questions?

[Harold Mayo]

Does anyone have any statistics about production on "assault weapons" by the various manufacturers?

I've been reading some VPC crap where one of their guys states that the number of "assault weapons" (how I despise that term ) has gone down since 1994 even though they've still been available. This, to me, is just the VPC trying to salvage some of what they consider to be their good name scrutiny: ) but I wonder at actual statistics.

It seems to me that the number of "assault weapons" in circulation has gone UP rather than down. After all, they are seldom destroyed and not in any significant numbers and manufacturers seem to have proliferated through the past decade rather than dying off. It would seem to me that the number of "assault weapons" has risen DRAMATICALLY rather than dropping.

Anyone have any facts or opinions?

 

[Tharg]

Opinion: don't have any facts.

If we go by the definition set forth in the AWB to begin with - then i'm sure they have gone down since they were not able to make any more of those quote un-quote assault weapons.

never mind that the liberals are using probably that fact - and then turning around and calling anything that "looks evil" an assault weapon.

(still trying to find that weapon that isn't an assault weapon. Yer always assaulting something w/ it - from the broke down microwave at the range to the idgit who didn't read the sign that said "this property protected by smith and wesson".... ehehe)

I'm just tired of people reporting on the AWB and then showing footage of say - those guys who were wrapped in body armour w/ fully auto weapons that have been "banned" since 1934 in the PRK blasting away.

Man - one of my favorite shows - The Jown Stewart show... dug in pretty hard =( usually he's funny on both sides... this time he was full on anti.

Oh well

J/Tharg!

 

[Sam Adams]

I don't remember where I read it, but last week I saw that the various US manufacturers of AR-15 clones had made something like 528,000 of them between 1995 and 2000. VPC somehow or other got production figures for 2001-sometime in 2004, and the total sold during the AWB was over 1 million. I assume that these figures are accurate, even given the source.

Note that I don't agree one whit with their view on the issue. The very fact that 1 million functionally-identical firearms - and those are just the AR15 clones - were added to the stock of (formerly) pre-bans (which may have been as many as 5 million), coupled with the lower crime rates since '94, proves that there is a NEGATIVE correlation between the number of guns and the level of crime. More guns = less crime. BTW, you can add all of the functionally-identical non-AR15s that were manufactured here and imported in the last 10 years to that 1 million figure. We're probably looking at roughly 2-2.5 million semi-autos in civilian hands since '94 firing the 5.56mm, 7.62x39 and the 7.62mm cartridges - yet crime dropped. So, VPC, how exactly did the AWB impact crime, you lying sacks of shiite?