soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
It wasn't about crime prevention, it used the illusion of crime prevention to protect market share for existing gov't connected gun contractors. The so-called legislation had no effect on preventing assault weapons from being on the market but rather it cleared the market from upstart competition. Only if you held patent exclusivity to the new technology, those weapons with the new cosmetic changes, were you still in the game.
Whether you agree or not is up to you but I've always said follow the money so that action is up to you.
There were no patents and there was no "new technology" to protect during the Assault Weapons Ban. The market didnt get "cleared" from any upstart competition.
Take for example the civilian AK-47 pattern rifle that has been available for decades in a semi automatic-only version. Once the AWB was enacted, these guns were still legal to import as long as the magazine well was narrowed to accept only single-stack 10 rd magazines instead of the wider 30-rounders, and either the bayonet lug or flash suppressor was ground off. Other than that, the "post ban" guns were identical in form and function to the "pre ban" versions.
Same deal with American and European guns. "Pre-ban" Glocks, Rugers, Smith&Wessons and SIGs were identical to "post-ban" Glocks, Rugers, Smith&Wessons and SIGs except for the spacers in the magazines of the post-ban guns that limited their capacity to 10 rounds.
The AWB was basically a bunch of anti-gun politicians sitting down and "making a statement" against crime by trying to outlaw hicap mags and "scary looking" cosmetic features on guns. They never actually "banned" anything. The entire thing was a farce.