What exactly did the assault weapons ban of Clinton do? The 1994 AWB made it illegal to manufacture firearms that fit the definition of "assault weapon" under the 1994 ban.
It did not make the ownership or sale of said weapons illegal, but it did add the mandate of having to fill out a BATF trace form when making a private sale (a requirement usually reserved only for the sale of waepons by lisenced gun dealers). Since, however, the law did not specify where a private seller was to obtain said forms or where it was to be filed, the part of the regs has probably been universally ignored.
What weapons count as assault weapons?
The definition of an assult weapon for purposes of the law was:
- A center fire semiautomatic rifle
- with a detachable magazine capable of holding more than 19 rounds
- possessing two or more features of appearance including:
- flash hider
- bayonet lug
- folding stock
- pistol grip protruding substantially below the base of the receiver
-or-
- a semiatomatic pistol
- with a detachable magazine capable of holding more than 19 rounds
- designed to look like a sub machine gun
- posessing a hand guard over the barrel allowing the operator to hold the barrel while firing
-or-
- any of 16 or so specific named models of rifles, pistols, or shotguns
Sorry if there are any inaccuracies in this - I wrote it from memory.
The specific short term impact of the law was three fold:
- Manufacturers of rifles that fit into the definition made small modifications to the appearence (removed bayonet lugs, used muzzle brakes instead of flash guards)in order to continue making "legal" rifles
- These military style rifles, which had never sold in significant quantities before, started selling in the multi-million unit per year volume range, and
- people stockpiled millions of 20-30 round magazines, in order to avoid the ban on manufacture of mags greater than 10 rounds in capacity
All in all, an object lesson in the Law of Unintended Consequences...
You left out the fact that it banned sale of normal capacity magazines, for rifles, handguns and a few shotguns. That's any magazine that olds more than 10 rounds. Except for .45 ACP, most full sized handguns, and virtually all centerfire rifles of military pattern, and many non military pattern ones as well, were originally equiped or can accept, such magazines.
It's 10 rounds on the rifle magazine and 19 named rifles. (Or copies or duplicates of them). Magazine ban is not restricted to centerfire either. Haven't been able to get the 25 (or 50) round magazines for my 10/22 (.22 caliber semi-auto rifle from Ruger) in years, and they tend to not last long.