First, the answer to yesterday's question:

Assuming each of the 20 firearms pictured below was available for purchase in January 1994, how many would have been banned from sale, transfer or use in the United States during the period between 1994 and 2004 owing to the provisions of the Federal "Assault Weapon" Ban?

ANSWER:

NONE.  Assuming that all of the units were in existence before the effective date of the ban, the ban did not affect the sale, transfer or use of any of the units in the list.  The ban did not provide for any controls on sale, transfer or use of units of product in existence prior to the effective date of the ban.  It controlled only manufacture and importation of new guns after the effective date of the ban.  All units in existence as of the effective date of the ban were unaffected by the ban, and the ban didn't take a single gun "off the streets."

 

Thus, the answer to the question is "none."

What far too few understand is that the "assault weapon" ban was, in practice, an almost completely symbolic gesture.  Nothing it did made any real sense from a criminological standpoint, and the law had no effect on any firearms already in existence in the U.S.--other than to make them more valuable and thus worth acquiring and taking care of.  The law was, more than anything else, an almost completely symbolic attempt by the anti-gun radicals to slice off and marginalize what was (at that time) a fairly thin sliver of guns and gun owners by classifiying certain guns as "assault weapons."

"But," your anti-gun friend may say, "at least they had to stop making any MORE of these types of guns.  That's something."

Is that true?  Let's take a look.

Today's question:

Of the 16 firearms pictured below, how many were banned, or would be subject to being banned,  from new manufacture or importation after the effective date of the "assault weapon" ban according to the provisions of that law? (NOTE : disregard magazine capacity)

(You can check your answer here.)