Assault Weapons

Running head: FEDERAL ASSAULT WEAPONS 1

was for the purpose of prohibiting the manufacturing of some types of semi-automatic firearms

for use by civilians. Furthermore, the federal law also prohibited some ammunition magazines

referred to as the large capacity magazines, and particular types of assault weapons. The

American congress passed the ban on the mentioned items for a period of ten years. It was upon

having a close vote of 52-48 by the senate that lead to the ban being passed. Bill Clinton former

American president was responsible for passing it into law when he signed it. It should be known

that the ban was only applicable to the weapons that were manufactured once the ban was

enacted. However, in the year 2004 on September 13, the ban expired because of the sunset

provisions. There were several attempts to challenge the ban’s provisions, but they were not

successful.

included the aftermarket items that were used for extending and repairing the magazines. It has

been witnessed that from the year 1994 up to 2004 when there was the federal assault weapons

ban, people continued to be wounded or killed because of shootings (Lott, 2010). Even to date,

this has not changed as witnessed by gun violence and mass shootings.

One other major problem of the ban was that it did not provide a proper definition of the

term assault weapon. It should be known that the fully automatic weapons are the ones that fire

strict manner since the year 1934. The semiautomatic weapons can be reloaded in an automatic

manner. However, they can be fired only once upon the depression of the trigger. They are also

available in various forms such as rifles and pistols as well as having different sizes and shapes.

In addition, The American congress did not want to ban all the semiautomatic weapons as it

would ban all the guns in the nation. The ban was only focused on 18 specific types of firearms

including particular guns that have military features. Certain AK-47’s and AR-15’s were banned

as congress had made it be known that semi-automatic rifles with a bayonet and pistol grip were

assault weapons (Lott, 2010). The issue was quite complex, and not easy to avoid.

In the 1990’s the gun violence did not drop to low levels, and it because of some key

factors. It can be supported by a study that was conducted at the University of Pennsylvania by

large capacity magazines are even more important. It is because they have been used in at least a

quarter of America’s gun crimes. Fortunately, as many as 24 million magazines have not been

touched because of the law of 1994 (Lott, 2010).

Upon viewing the diagram below, it can be claimed that apart from the year 1999,

whereby there were five shootings that included the columbine massacre, it was peaceful. It even

included the shootings that took place from the year 1982 in order to provide more beneficial

numbers of shootings each year. In fact, the victim numbers increased as well in that they tripled.

(Carter, 2012)

The American society has become safer to some extent because of the 1994 law. In the

of ensuring public safety. The weapons that have the military styles are even considered to be

extremely deadly in the civilian market (Roth & Koper, 1999). In such a situation, the 1994 law

had not been passed, and the weapons continued to have an impact on the crime gun traces.

Consequently, there would have been more gun related crimes.

many innocent human beings. They are usually people that are going about their daily lives until

they are shot unexpectedly. Some of the victims of the mass shootings have been caught unaware

while visiting movie theatres, religious services, shopping malls and even schools. Later on, they

are shot at indiscriminately, and this is extremely disturbing. There is evidence to prove that it is

not likely for an individual to become the victim of a mass shooting. Sometimes the mass

shootings can be compared to other forms of death. They include vehicle crashes, suffocation,

poisoning and falling down, and they are more deadly than mass shootings (Carter, 2012).

People should thus not be afraid of the mass shootings as there are already other well established

causes of death.

Politics has even gone ahead and started to concern itself with gun related matters since

there will more gun related violence.

Congress is also experiencing a political struggles as there are calls from different

stakeholders for it to come up with more strict laws. Even the former president of the United

States, Barack Obama was faced with having to deal with the problem. In fact, even Obama’s

allies were grappling with the advocates for gun rights as they were dealing with the limited bills

that even had a sunset provision. It has even been witnessed that for a long time, there was a

of the legislation, and they were decisive to the victory (Carter, 2012). The other important point

was that if some of the Republicans did not offer their support to the Democrats, they would not

have had the winning vote. In the current political arena, the Republicans and Democrats are not

able to cooperate when it comes to such matters. They are usually disagreeing, and consequently,

they have not made a positive impact in terms of the making provisions to the ban.

In conclusion, the ban was successful at making sure that the American streets did not

have many dangerous weapons. However, the ban by the federal government had some problems

that have been witnessed up to date. It managed to undermine some specific parts of the

provisions that lead to allowing the large capacity magazines and assault weapons to continue to

prevail in the market. Another problem brought about by the ban was that it affected the

experience a similar legislative pull and push, it will always be imperfect. Therefore, more

research about the consequences of allowing Americans to own guns should be conducted.

Carter, G. (2012). Guns in the American society. New York: ABC-CLIO Publishing.

Lott, J. (2010). More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws. Chicago:

University of Chicago Press

Roth, J., & Koper, C. (1999). Impact of the 1994 assault weapons ban: 1994-1996. National

Institute of Justice. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/173405.pdf