Craig: Assault weapons and mags made before 1994 ban are grandfathered in. Mfgs increased production prior to ban. New models have been introduced. The ban effects firearms never widely used in crime, sites study. According to FBI, rifles of ALL kinds only used in 3% of murders. Yes, some people do hunt with these AW. It is used as a weapon of choice, often because it is lighter. Mary uses a Colt AR15 in Idaho with 20 round mags to hunt (letter from constituent). The ban in 1994 named certain guns specifically. Relists banned features. In ‘34 grenade launchers were banned, and will remain so if AWB sunsets. What were banned by other laws that will remain banned after sunset? I heard reference to Uzis and AK47s. These were banned with the importation law. In 1993, assault pistols were banned under the importation law. Ownership of many of these guns will still be illegal after AWB expires. American made rifles such as the AR15 will be able to be made in their original configuration. They will be able to buy STANDARD capacity magazines instead of abritrairly limited ones. They will be able to use these in their defense. If you are a criminal who deals in the black market, you are unaffected. It's the law-abiding citizen who is affected. The Senator from CA indicated a decline. THIS statistic is accurate. Less than 2% of crimes committed with a semi-auto assault weapon, which is the same before and after the ban. Let me talk about the misuse of tracing data. More than a decade ago, the firearms tracing system was examined. It was determined that traces should not be used as usage statistics. Most guns not used in violent crimes were traced, while those used were not. An LEO may initiate a trace for any reason, crime or not. The ATF admitted, it is not possible to determine if traced guns are related to crime. It is simply for gathering info. Traces on AW are done disproportionate to their crimes, due to political interest. It was the talk of the day.
