One question many Americans ask about the assault weapons ban is what kind of guns were actually banned. Well, not many. All automatic guns, like your Rambo/Arnold guns for which you hold the trigger down until you run out of bullets, were banned in 1934. No one outside of the military has been able to purchase those since Bonnie and Clyde were caught in the swamps of Louisiana.
How about "Uzis" and AK-47s? Nope, President Reagan banned importing those in 1986, along with another act in 1989 that made production of them in the United States illegal. Well, gee, what in the heck did this ban make illegal?
Well for one, bayonet mounts. You couldn't buy a gun that came with a bayonet mount, so now you were defenseless against the pillaging Redcoats once you ran out of musket shots. Another thing the bill did was ban specific model names of guns. "Kalashnikov," "Tec-9" and "Uzi" were no longer allowed to be attached to a weapon sold in the United States. The guns were not made illegal, only calling them by that name was made illegal.
Also banned were a few more trivial, cosmetic features on guns that had nothing to do with their performance or ability to fire. No more pistol grips, folding stocks (the butt of the gun) or flash suppressors. You also couldn't buy a gun with a grenade launcher attached. Grenades and the components to make them are very restricted and banned under a litany of other laws, making this particular part of the ban irrelevant.
The answer to the most frequent question, "Can Americans now purchase assault weapons?" remains the same. No. You cannot. The few guns affected by the gun ban were only used in 2 percent of gun-related violent crimes in California before the ban.
As for gun control in general, the founders of this country thought it very important that we have the right to bear arms. They put it second on the list after the five freedoms in the First Amendment. According to Gary Kleck's "Targeting Guns," guns are used defensively four times as much as much as criminally. This amounts to 2,575 lives saved for every one lost to guns. Here in the United States, gun violence is at 30-year low, violent crime is at a 30-year low, property crime is at a 30-year low and the accidental firearm death rate is at it's lowest in over 100 years.
In Britain, armed burglary and gun violence has skyrocketed since the government banned guns. Criminals now revel in the knowledge that when they break into a law-abiding citizen's home they know they won't face an armed homeowner while brandishing illegally acquired guns of their own. That is one situation no one in America wants for themselves and their family.
