benEzra
Moderator Emeritus
Not the case, as I recall. A lot of people didn't wake up and realize what was going on until the ban had already passed.Gun sales after the Clinton laws went into effect tanked because anyone who was even remotely thinking of buying a gun in the foreseeable future bought one before the laws went into effect.
BTW, it was between 1994 and 2004 that the AR-15 platform became the top-selling centerfire rifle in the United States, IIRC. There weren't many companies manufacturing AR's in 1993/1994; there were between two and three dozen companies making them by 2004.
I bought my own AK in 2003, FWIW.
That was the case in 1993. It's definitely not the case anymore. From Outdoor Life, 2 July 2007:The number of people interested in ARs and AKs is a small fraction of gun owners
http://www.outdoorlife.com/article/Shooting/The-World's-Most-Versatile-Rifle
The butt-ugly poodle shooter has morphed into not only the longest-lived battle rifle in history, but in civilian hands a mainstay for competition, self-defense and, most recently, many flavors of hunting. In fact, walking the miles and miles of aisles at the 2007 SHOT (Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade) Show made it clear that "black rifles"-rifles derived from military platforms, like the M-4/M-16, the AK-47, the M-14 and the FN-FAL-not only are the best-selling rifles in America, but are the unequivocal driving force in the industry today.
The numbers are staggering. AR-platform guns are approaching handgun-level sales and may soon surpass even Jeff Cooper's mighty 1911, which has ruled the sales roost in the firearms world for the last two decades.
What's the best-selling ammo in America? Try the .223/5.56, standard fodder for the AR-platform guns. Other top performers? Well, there's the 7.62X39, food for the AK-47 and its hundreds of variants, and, of course, the .308/7.62 NATO, feeding the more traditional "battle rifles" like the M-1A, a hot seller, and the reborn FN-FAL. Last I heard, the best-selling "traditional" hunting caliber on the list was the .45/70, of all things.