Per MSNBC note
Congress won’t vote on assault weapons ban - 10-year federal ban set to expire Monday
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
A comprehensive piece of legislation that did not prevent a single crime in 10 years, but inconvenienced thousands of Americans just trying to participate in their hobbies, go hunting, protect their families, etc.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
A comprehensive piece of legislation that did not prevent a single crime in 10 years, but inconvenienced thousands of Americans just trying to participate in their hobbies, go hunting, protect their families, etc.
No. Not in the least.
I agree! Good riddance. But what about high capacity magazines? Are these going to be legalized?
Nope. High-cap magazines are still banned, AFAIK.
Bad law. The only good thing in it is the Sundown clause. Hasn’t had a bit of impact…both sides agree on that fact, at least.
New manufacture standard-capacity magazines will once again be available for us mere civilians. Those 10-rd reduced-capacity magazines will be a relic of history before long…
I’ve been looking for a cite on various gun-rights orgs websites as to whether hi-cap magazines will be available, and all they’re on about is the “assault weapon” angle, or the “bayonet lugs and doodads” angle.
I think, absent evidence to the contrary, that Brutus is right on this, unless you’re in a jurisdiction which has adopted its own hi-cap laws (NYC, NJ(15-round?), and CA, IIRC).
Count me in as another one glad it’s gone. Pointless laws are pointless laws. And this one was pretty darn pointless.
Amen. Not that I want to see guns outlawed or anything (far from it!), but I can at least see the (flawed) logic behind banning all handguns or rifles or whatever. The AWB is something that only Swinestein and Brady can see the logic of.
As one from across the pond who is blissfully ignorant about guns, even I see the futility of this insipid tinkering. Banning only specific “scary” weapons clearly will not affect the murder rate one jot.
Like so many other US policies, from healthcare to energy efficiency, unless the political will is there to genuinely address the issue then laws like this are rather like laying an isolated length of traintrack in the middle of nowhere.
[QUOTE=AmbushBug]
I’ve been looking for a cite on various gun-rights orgs websites as to whether hi-cap magazines will be available, and all they’re on about is the “assault weapon” angle, or the “bayonet lugs and doodads” angle.
[quote]
Title XI of the Federal Violent Crime Control Act includes the AWB and the magazine ban; both provisions expire in 3 days.
A few weeks ago I bought 2 30 round clips for my M1 from a surplus shop in NJ. When shopping it I called a local gun shop that I bought my pistol from last month and asked about the clip. He told me to skip the online order since the ban was up for renewal now and it wouldn’t pass.
Now if I can ask a hijack question. Klinton got this through before I got into rifles, so what will be available next week? I know there will be a glut of stockpiled guns, so what am I looking at?
The practical effects of the end of the AWB: (For the legalese effects, read this, then imagine it didn’t exist, cause it won’t in three happy days!)
- Newly manufactured rifles for the civilian market will be able to have all of the naughty features. The streets will run red with the blood of bayonet charges, I tell
you! Not much, if anything, will happen price-wise though. There will be a few new models (AUG, FNC, etc) on the market again. This may or may not drive down the price of AR’s, but I seriously doubt it will.
I’m not into collapsing stocks (not comfy), and my Enfield No.1 Mk.III takes care of my bayoneting needs, and I already have a nice selection of other rifles, so I the only thing I am really waiting for is:
- No restrictions on magazines. Right now, the only ‘new’ standard capacity mags for sale are marked ‘LEO/MILITARY only’; In three days, those become meaningless words. You’ll be able to buy whatever you want for that carbine.
Right now, you can buy standard capacity mags made before the ban. They are expensive as hell, since supply is fixed and demand grows, but you can get them. After the ban goes away, magazine prices will come back down to normal levels. (After a while, it’ll take some time to fill those shelves methinks)
IMHO, just as the ban had no real effect on crime, murders, availability of weapons, etc - the sunset of the ban will have no real effect as well. I think some more “exotic” items such as UZI’s and Steyrs and so forth will return, but the price point has been set pretty high and I imagine we’re talking about $5000+ guns here only owned by collectors and enthusiasts. IIRC there are still some ATF restrictions on importing some arbitrarily-defined “non-sporting” firearms in place, yes?
The best benefit IMO will be the return of the 10+ round magazine for handguns. No criminal was ever prevented from acquiring an “illegal” magazine anyhow, and in any event high-capacity magazines are trivial to manufacture from an illegal garage or basement-shop standpoint. Many of them are at heart just a folded piece of sheet steel with a base, follower, and spring. You can use the base and follower from a legal 10-round, buy a spring from, oh, anywhere, and fold the extended case in about 15-30 minutes. A High School metal shop class could crank them out all day long if they wanted to.
I used to be much more strongly pro-gun than I am now. Now I feel that there should be little restrictions on weapons (meaning, availability of full-auto and nationwide concealed-carry) but that there should be much, much more restrictions on people (extensive background checks and fitness checks, mandatory real safety, legal, and use training; and review boards for misconduct with weapons to get the dangerous crazy fucks away from the guns. Plus total and absolute compliance of off-duty police with all firearms regulations the rest of us normal Janes have to deal with.) Sadly, I recognize that it’s not likely possible to do things the way I’d like without, IMO, risking tobagganing down the slope much faster to the proverbial house-to-house sweeps.
The problem with the ban was that it did not stop one from getting something the same as, or something similar to what was banned. One reason it was not deemed unconstitutional.
As for our safety, nothing will change. Of course, the first time someone goes on a rampage and kills a bunch of people with something that was banned, Fienstein will be screaming “I TOLD YOU SO”
An Uzi costs $ 5000!?
Nah, an Uzi will go for around $2000, but things like Styer AUGs go over 10 grand easily.
In regards to select fire and automatic weapons (the 2k Uzis were talking about), nothing has changed. Their outrageous prices are caused by fixed supply due to the ‘machine gun ban’, which, while pretty stupid also, is seperate from the ‘assault weapons ban’.
What we’ll be able to have now is domestically manufactured (executive order bans a lot of foreign ‘assault weapons’ by name) weapons that can have ‘evil features’ like pistol grips, bayonet lugs, flash suppressors, etc. And also new magazines over 10 rounds can be made for civilian use.
Yahoo! It’s time to get my Tec and my Uzi, and have them both with 500 round clips. I just can’t wait!