Ms. Mandell,
Your column includes this paragraph:
The law banned weapon makers from adding more than two special features that were believed to make guns more dangerous and semiautomatic. They included: the folding stock, which makes the weapon more concealable; the bayonet lug, an attachment for a machete; the flash suppressor, which makes the shooter invisible; and a mandatory shorter pistol grip. The law also prohibited guns from holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition.
You know, you really ought to tell your editor it is a cruel joke to assign a technical topic to a newbie, without time to investigate the subject.
Item: it is impossible to make a gun "more semiautomatic"; it's like pregnancy, either you are or you are not. Whether the features made the weapons "more dangerous" has been a 12-year dispute.
Item: a bayonet lug is for attaching, amazingly, a bayonet, not a machete. Bayonets are stabbing weapons, turning a rifle into a short spear; that's pretty much a 'last chance' desperate move. See
http://www.gruntsmilitary.com/ima/factsheets/bayonet.jpg
Item: A flash suppressor makes a shooter invisible? It looks like someone cut a phrase, and even that was wrong. Flash suppressors focus the burning propellant forward, rather than allowing it to expand in a circle in front of the gun, so a shooter is not blinded by his own shots at night. Anyone in front or to the side can easily see the shooter's position.
And I don't know what to make of 'mandatory shorter pistol grip'. A pistol grip is one of the features specified in the now-expired law. Mandatory? Shorter?
Item: the law prohibited new manufacture and sale to the public of removable magazines with a capacity greater than 10 rounds. Since the manufacturers had plenty of warning, they made LOTS of them before the effective date of the ban, and the supply has been adequate for the last ten years, The law did not prohibit guns from holding more than ten rounds.
Please do keep in touch with Captain Van Winkle on the use of those things formerly called 'assault weapons' in crimes in Gainesville, and see if you can publish accurate figures after some time has passed. I predict the number will be about 3% of gun crimes - exactly what the proportion was before 1994 and in the 10 years since 1994.
