Assault Weapons Ban of 2013

Mass shootings in Newtown, Aurora, and Tucson have demonstrated all too clearly the need to regulate military-style assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines. These weapons allow a gunman to fire a large number of rounds quickly and without having to reload.

What the bill does:

The legislation bans the sale, transfer, manufacturing and importation of:

  • All semiautomatic rifles that can accept a detachable magazine and have at least one military feature: pistol grip; forward grip; folding, telescoping, or detachable stock; grenade launcher or rocket launcher; barrel shroud; or threaded barrel.

everything that even looks vaguely military produced from about 1955 on; rocket launcher? REALLY? For the few rifles still allowed, looks like they are on the specific list at the end, so still illegal.

  • All semiautomatic pistols that can accept a detachable magazine and have at least one military feature: threaded barrel; second pistol grip; barrel shroud; capacity to accept a detachable magazine at some location outside of the pistol grip; or semiautomatic version of an automatic firearm.

Yes, most manufacturers offer threaded barrels for pistols, but they are rare and not much use unless you plan on putting a suppressor on it, which is a whole other story;//// “second pistol grip” – illegal since National Firearms Acto f 1934- go to the ATF website and look at the links on the right side- very specific; ////“barrel shroud” – what does that mean? No real definition- could be anything that covers the barrel, such as the slide used on 95% of all semi-auto pistols made since about 1905- vague enough that, interpreted one way, could outlaw every modern pistol except a few Berettas and WWII Lugers, P38s, and a few others;  ////“semi-auto version of an automatic firearms” – Glock makes a G18 that is full auto; so, every semi-auto Glock could be said to meet this description, making every Glock illegal- just one of many examples- lots of court decisions

  • All semiautomatic rifles and handguns that have a fixed magazine with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds.

I don’t know of any handgun with a fixed magazine that holds more than 10 rds; those I know of that hold 10 rds are either very expensive, customized target competition guns, or WWII Mauser Broomhandles.  Maybe there is one type somewhere out there, but never seen it, can’t find an example on the internet, so??

  • All semiautomatic shotguns that have a folding, telescoping, or detachable stock; pistol grip; fixed magazine with the capacity to accept more than 5 rounds; ability to accept a detachable magazine; forward grip; grenade launcher or rocket launcher; or shotgun with a revolving cylinder.

This says “forward grip”, not “forward vertical grip”; every shotgun ever made is designed for two handed use, so they all have a forward grip; again- rocket launcher/grenade laucher? REALLY? Finally, the only revolving cylinder shotgun I’ve ever see is the Taurus “Circuit Judge” in .410, a very samll shotgun caliber. And guess what? It only holds 5 rounds.

  • All ammunition feeding devices (magazines, strips, and drums) capable of accepting more than 10 rounds.

Pretty straight forward. Also not within the legal right of the federal government per our Constitution, the 10th amendment, or common sense.

  • 157 specifically-named firearms (listed at the end of this page). See below.

The legislation excludes the following weapons from the bill:

  • Any weapon that is lawfully possessed at the date of the bill’s enactment;
  • Any firearm manually operated by a bolt, pump, lever or slide action;
  • Assault weapons used by military, law enforcement, and retired law enforcement; and Why are “retired law enforcement” ok, but not retired Soldiers, instructors, etc?
  • Antique weapons.

The legislation protects hunting and sporting firearms:

  • The bill excludes 2,258 legitimate hunting and sporting rifles and shotguns by specific make and model.

The legislation strengthens the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and state bans by:

  • Moving from a 2-characteristic test to a 1-characteristic test.
    • The bill also makes the ban harder to evade by eliminating the easy-to-remove bayonet mounts and flash suppressors from the characteristics test.
  • Banning dangerous aftermarket modifications and workarounds.
    • Bump or slide fire stocks, which are modified stocks that enable semi-automatic weapons to fire at rates similar to fully automatic machine guns. Only knuckleheads with no interest in skill or marksmanship use these anyway, and with most rifle ammo costing $1 or more PER ROUND, these are irrelevant.
    • So-called “bullet buttons” that allow the rapid replacement of ammunition magazines, frequently used as a workaround to prohibitions on detachable magazines. All but irrelevant. A “bullet button” can be one of two things- either a button making it easy to remove a magazine that would otherwise require a “tool”- aka, a work-around for a fixed magazine- OR a button to make it so a removable magazine become a fixed magazine, again requiring a tool to remove it rather than just a fingertip on a magazine release. Contradictory, can mean whatever they want. BTW, only one company makes something trademarked as a “Bullet Button”.
    • Thumbhole stocks, a type of stock that was created as a workaround to avoid prohibitions on pistol grips. SO- your $10,000 custom made target rifle with a thumbhole stock is now an illegal assault weapon, eh? This was intended to go after the workarounds such as the MAK-90; again, pretty much useless legislation.
  • Adding a ban on the importation of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines. This does nothing- any imported firearms must go through a US distributor and meet all the same requirements as domestic weapons. Useless.
  • Eliminating the 10-year sunset that allowed the original federal ban to expire. Of course.

The legislation addresses the millions of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines currently in existence by:

  • Requiring a background check on all sales or transfers of a grandfathered assault weapon.
    • This background check can be run through the FBI or, if a state chooses, initiated with a state agency, as with the existing background check system. Just as SC did under Clinton’s law, allowing the state to set their own system is good. I am opposed to this on general principles since it creates a tracking system, a key component of every gov’t gun grab in history.
  • Prohibiting the sale or transfer of large-capacity ammunition feeding devices lawfully possessed on the date of enactment of the bill. Anti-constitution, nearly impossible to enforce- useless. Strictly a sting/gotcha possibility.
  • Allowing states and localities to use federal Byrne JAG grant funds to conduct a voluntary buy-back program for grandfathered assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition feeding devices. I’ve previously worked for gun stores/distributors back when police departments would trade-in the guns bought back in these programs. Roughly 80% crap that is unsafe and/or rusted solid, doesn’t work, etc, 15% cheap stuff that might work but nobody wants, and 5% fairly modern, working guns, usually revolvers in .22 or .32 caliber. No “assault” weapons, high-line stuff such as Glocks, Sigs, etc etc
  • Imposing a safe storage requirement for grandfathered firearms, to keep them away from prohibited persons. So vague as to be criminal. Who decides what “safe storage” is?
  • Requiring that assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition feeding devices manufactured after the date of the bill’s enactment be engraved with the serial number and date of manufacture of the weapon A magazine for one AR-15 will fit every other one of the millions of AR-15s ever made, if in same caliber; impossible to put a serial number from the weapon on it. Dates, yes- same as on Clinton’s ban.

Assault weapon bans have been proven to be effective

The 1994 Assault Weapons Ban was effective at reducing crime and getting these military-style weapons off our streets. Since the ban expired, more than 350 people have been killed and more than 450 injured by these weapons.

  • A Justice Department study of the assault weapons ban found that it was responsible for a 6.7% decrease in total gun murders, holding all other factors equal.  Nice- too bad it is a lie. From the professor’s 1997 initial study: "the evidence is not strong enough for us to conclude that there was any meaningful effect (i.e., that the effect was different from zero)."
    • Source: Jeffrey A. Roth & Christopher S. Koper, “Impact Evaluation of the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act of 1994,” (March 1997).
  • The same study also found that “Assault weapons are disproportionately involved in murders with multiple victims, multiple wounds per victim, and police officers as victims.”
  • The use of assault weapons in crime declined by more than two-thirdsby about nine years after 1994 Assault Weapons Ban took effect.   Maybe they changed their mind in the follow-up in 2004, at the sunset of the ban? NOPE- "we cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation's recent drop in gun violence. And, indeed, there has been no discernible reduction in the lethality and injuriousness of gun violence." Interestingly, I used the same sources as Ms. Feinstein listed to find these quotes.
    • Source: Christopher S. Koper, “An Updated Assessment of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban: Impacts on Gun Markets and Gun Violence, 1994-2003” (June 2004), University of Pennsylvania, Report to the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice.
  • The percentage of firearms seized by police in Virginia that had high-capacity magazines dropped significantly during the ban. That figure has doubledsince the ban expired. I’m not taking the Washington Post’s word on anything; why not cite real law enforcement stats, like the FBI UCR? BUT- using their own research graph, looks like a massive 5% difference from mid-ban to afterwards.
  • When Maryland imposed a more stringent ban on assault pistols and high-capacity magazines in 1994, it led to a 55% drop in assault pistols recoveredby the Baltimore Police Department. What are “assault pistols”?
    • Source: Douglas S. Weil & Rebecca C. Knox, Letter to the Editor, The Maryland Ban on the Sale of Assault Pistols and High-Capacity Magazines: Estimating the Impact in Baltimore, 87 Am. J. of Public Health 2, Feb. 1997.
  • 37% of police departments reported seeing a noticeable increasein criminals’ use of assault weapons since the 1994 federal ban expired.
    • Source: Police Executive Research Forum, Guns and Crime: Breaking New Ground by Focusing on the Local Impact (May 2010).  PERF is a multi-million dollar think tank in Washington; interestingly, their findings have often been very different from the FBI’s UCR (Uniform Crime Report) statistics. I wonder who bankrolls them?

List of firearms prohibited by name (see below)

Rifles: All AK types, including the following: AK, AK47, AK47S, AK–74, AKM, AKS, ARM, MAK90, MISR, NHM90, NHM91, Rock River Arms LAR–47, SA85, SA93, Vector Arms AK–47, VEPR, WASR–10, and WUM, IZHMASH Saiga AK, MAADI AK47 and ARM, Norinco 56S, 56S2, 84S, and 86S, Poly Technologies AK47 and AKS; All AR types, including the following: AR–10, AR–15, Armalite M15 22LR Carbine, Armalite M15–T, Barrett REC7, Beretta AR–70, Bushmaster ACR, Bushmaster Carbon 15, Bushmaster MOE series, Bushmaster XM15, Colt Match Target Rifles, DoubleStar AR rifles, DPMS Tactical Rifles, Heckler & Koch MR556, Olympic Arms, Remington R–15 rifles, Rock River Arms LAR–15, Sig Sauer SIG516 rifles, Smith & Wesson M&P15 Rifles, Stag Arms AR rifles, Sturm, Ruger & Co. SR556 rifles; Barrett M107A1; Barrett M82A1; Beretta CX4 Storm; Calico Liberty Series; CETME Sporter; Daewoo K–1, K–2, Max 1, Max 2, AR 100, and AR 110C; Fabrique Nationale/FN Herstal FAL, LAR, 22 FNC, 308 Match, L1A1 Sporter, PS90, SCAR, and FS2000; Feather Industries AT–9; Galil Model AR and Model ARM; Hi-Point Carbine; HK–91, HK–93, HK–94, HK–PSG–1 and HK USC; Kel-Tec Sub–2000, SU–16, and RFB; SIG AMT, SIG PE–57, Sig Sauer SG 550, and Sig Sauer SG 551; Springfield Armory SAR–48; Steyr AUG; Sturm, Ruger Mini-14 Tactical Rife M–14/20CF; All Thompson rifles, including the following: Thompson M1SB, Thompson T1100D, Thompson T150D, Thompson T1B, Thompson T1B100D, Thompson T1B50D, Thompson T1BSB, Thompson T1–C, Thompson T1D, Thompson T1SB, Thompson T5, Thompson T5100D, Thompson TM1, Thompson TM1C; UMAREX UZI Rifle; UZI Mini Carbine, UZI Model A Carbine, and UZI Model B Carbine; Valmet M62S, M71S, and M78; Vector Arms UZI Type; Weaver Arms Nighthawk; Wilkinson Arms Linda Carbine.

To be brief: there are tens of millions of some of these guns in existence, less than 100 of others; many are .22 caliber rifles, same thing used to shoot tin cans and the occasional squirrel; many otheres cost in excess of $5000; check 2011 FBU UCR stats to see how useless this is, UNLESS your goal is a dis-armed population.

(  http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/table-20 )

Pistols: All AK–47 types, including the following: Centurion 39 AK pistol, Draco AK–47 pistol, HCR AK–47 pistol, IO Inc. Hellpup AK–47 pistol, Krinkov pistol, Mini Draco AK–47 pistol, Yugo Krebs Krink pistol; All AR–15 types, including the following: American Spirit AR–15 pistol, Bushmaster Carbon 15 pistol, DoubleStar Corporation AR pistol, DPMS AR–15 pistol, Olympic Arms AR–15 pistol, Rock River Arms LAR 15 pistol; Calico Liberty pistols; DSA SA58 PKP FAL pistol; Encom MP–9 and MP–45; Heckler & Koch model SP-89 pistol; Intratec AB–10, TEC–22 Scorpion, TEC–9, and TEC–DC9; Kel-Tec PLR 16 pistol; The following MAC types: MAC–10, MAC–11; Masterpiece Arms MPA A930 Mini Pistol, MPA460 Pistol, MPA Tactical Pistol, and MPA Mini Tactical Pistol; Military Armament Corp. Ingram M–11, Velocity Arms VMAC; Sig Sauer P556 pistol; Sites Spectre; All Thompson types, including the following: Thompson TA510D, Thompson TA5; All UZI types, including: Micro-UZI. Pretty much same comments as above

Shotguns: Franchi LAW–12 and SPAS 12; All IZHMASH Saiga 12 types, including the following: IZHMASH Saiga 12, IZHMASH Saiga 12S, IZHMASH Saiga 12S EXP–01, IZHMASH Saiga 12K, IZHMASH Saiga 12K–030, IZHMASH Saiga 12K–040 Taktika; Streetsweeper; Striker 12. Seems like a short list til you remember the earlier mention of “forward grips”

Belt-fed semiautomatic firearms: All belt-fed semiautomatic firearms including TNW M2HB. Out of production, last one I can find sold for just under $10,000 and had to be fired from a heavy tripod using ammo that costs $5 to $10 per round; willing to bet no belt-fed semi-auto replica of a machine gun has ever been used in a crime anywhere.