sturmruger
Member
Most of this thread is assuming the Assualt Weapon Ban of 1994 expires. I am not expert, but from all the the reading I have done I believe we have an excellant chance of no further AWB type legislation being passed this year.
There was another thread in this forum concerning Bill Ruger and the company that is named after him. It got me thinking about the whole issue of the AWB of 1994. I was only 16 when the ban went into effect. At that time it didn’t concern me a whole lot. I had plenty of high capacity mags for my 10-22, which at the time was all that really mattered to me.
After the thread about Mr. Ruger selling us all out I started thinking about how the ban has affected me over the last ten years. I came to the conclusion that my gun collection has not suffered at all. All of the rifles that I have on my “plan to purchase†list were still available to me. The only part of the law that has really effected what guns I have chosen to buy would probably be in my pistol collection. What bothered me the most was when I bought a couple Steyr Pistols. There are no official Steyr preban mags for this gun. I had to settle for the 10 round magazines. After the Steyrs I tried to buy pistols that I could find preban mags for. The bottom line is for me this law has been a non-factor.
Do not get me wrong I hate any gun control laws vehemently. I believe we should stubbornly fight the future passage of such liberal legislation. Where I am going with all of this is I think the AWB is a bad law, but I think it has had positive effects politically. What the AWB of 1994 reminds me of is Prohibition. They tried Prohibition for 13 years and found that it didn’t work! I am sure when they repealed Prohibition there were people saying that Prohibition did work, but in the end everyone that was realistic came to the conclusion that it was a waste of time and Taxpayers’ money. Even now 80+ years later no one in their right mind would want to pass laws prohibiting all alcohol mostly because it was tried once and found to not work. I think in ten years society will be able to look back on this legislation and realize that it was not needed, it didn’t reduce crime, and there was no increase in crime when it expired.
It has also been discussed in many of the gun magazines the positive effect this law has had on pistol designs and options. Many manufacturers have made guns that are smaller and easier to conceal since the ban went into effect. There was also rise in popularity of larger calibers. The thinking being that if you could only have ten rounds in your magazine you mine as well have the biggest rounds possible These are all positive effects
In conclusion the AWB is a law that should have never happened. Responsible legislators should have recognized what a waste of time this law would be and killed it. After the 94’ elections many unseated congressman wished they would have listened to the NRA and voted against passage of this bill. Even today we have a possible Presidential Candidate that is saying we don’t need anymore-federal gun laws. (Dean) Although he does believe we should renew the AWB. I think politicians for the next 20 years will think back to this law and realize they don’t want to vote for more gun laws. I am sure there will still be your Clintons and Shumers who will always try to pass more gun laws, but they will be the minority. Middle of the road Republicans, and Democrats will do what they can to stay away from anymore-massive gun control legislation. They all want to get reelected and taking away guns from law-abiding citizens is not going to help that happen. In the future they will probably call this the AWB Lesson I just hope our elected officials remember it.
[bI know that my statements are a little out there. I would appreciate any constructive criticism. Please stay on topic and avoid personal attacks. I do not want to get my thread locked.[/b]
There was another thread in this forum concerning Bill Ruger and the company that is named after him. It got me thinking about the whole issue of the AWB of 1994. I was only 16 when the ban went into effect. At that time it didn’t concern me a whole lot. I had plenty of high capacity mags for my 10-22, which at the time was all that really mattered to me.
After the thread about Mr. Ruger selling us all out I started thinking about how the ban has affected me over the last ten years. I came to the conclusion that my gun collection has not suffered at all. All of the rifles that I have on my “plan to purchase†list were still available to me. The only part of the law that has really effected what guns I have chosen to buy would probably be in my pistol collection. What bothered me the most was when I bought a couple Steyr Pistols. There are no official Steyr preban mags for this gun. I had to settle for the 10 round magazines. After the Steyrs I tried to buy pistols that I could find preban mags for. The bottom line is for me this law has been a non-factor.
Do not get me wrong I hate any gun control laws vehemently. I believe we should stubbornly fight the future passage of such liberal legislation. Where I am going with all of this is I think the AWB is a bad law, but I think it has had positive effects politically. What the AWB of 1994 reminds me of is Prohibition. They tried Prohibition for 13 years and found that it didn’t work! I am sure when they repealed Prohibition there were people saying that Prohibition did work, but in the end everyone that was realistic came to the conclusion that it was a waste of time and Taxpayers’ money. Even now 80+ years later no one in their right mind would want to pass laws prohibiting all alcohol mostly because it was tried once and found to not work. I think in ten years society will be able to look back on this legislation and realize that it was not needed, it didn’t reduce crime, and there was no increase in crime when it expired.
It has also been discussed in many of the gun magazines the positive effect this law has had on pistol designs and options. Many manufacturers have made guns that are smaller and easier to conceal since the ban went into effect. There was also rise in popularity of larger calibers. The thinking being that if you could only have ten rounds in your magazine you mine as well have the biggest rounds possible These are all positive effects
In conclusion the AWB is a law that should have never happened. Responsible legislators should have recognized what a waste of time this law would be and killed it. After the 94’ elections many unseated congressman wished they would have listened to the NRA and voted against passage of this bill. Even today we have a possible Presidential Candidate that is saying we don’t need anymore-federal gun laws. (Dean) Although he does believe we should renew the AWB. I think politicians for the next 20 years will think back to this law and realize they don’t want to vote for more gun laws. I am sure there will still be your Clintons and Shumers who will always try to pass more gun laws, but they will be the minority. Middle of the road Republicans, and Democrats will do what they can to stay away from anymore-massive gun control legislation. They all want to get reelected and taking away guns from law-abiding citizens is not going to help that happen. In the future they will probably call this the AWB Lesson I just hope our elected officials remember it.
[bI know that my statements are a little out there. I would appreciate any constructive criticism. Please stay on topic and avoid personal attacks. I do not want to get my thread locked.[/b]