2 points ...
1989 BATFE ban on import of assault-style rifles by POTUS #41 GHWB after the Cleveland Elementary School mass shooting in Stockton, CA. The shooter used a Chinese AK-56 assault rifle.
Under 18 U.S.C. section 925(d)(3), the Secretary shall approve applications for importation only when the firearms are generally recognized as particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes (the “sporting purposes test”). In 1989, ATF denied applications to import a series of semiautomatic versions of automatic-fire military assault rifles. When ATF examined these semiautomatic assault rifles, it found that the rifles, while no longer machineguns, still had a military configuration that was designed for killing and disabling the enemy and that distinguished the rifles from traditional sporting rifles. This distinctively military configuration served as the basis for ATF’s finding that the rifles were not considered sporting rifles under the statute.
Recall the campaign in 2020 where the DemonRats were pushing the idea of classifying semi-auto assault-style rifles under the 1934 National Firearm Act as Type 2 weapons of war.
“still had a military configuration that was designed for killing and disabling the enemy”
Yeah... A bullet still came out of the end of it.
Apparently they reworded the definition then. Used to be “fully automatic as an option with a selective switch” was the definition.