So I've been out of town for the last 3 days. I see this article was front page news when it appeared in print. It's nice to see the comments.
Let me add my perspective. The 1994 ban didn't ban a damn thing. It banned names, such as AK 47 (which you will not find on anything available for sale with that name to this day, unless it's a pre-1989 import) and cosmetic features such as flash hiders (?), bayonet lugs (haven't heard of a good old fashioned back-alley bayoneting, you'd think something like that would at warrant a passing mention on the news or something), pistol grips (because more precise control of where one's shots go isn't important), and folding or telescoping stocks (because short people can really get behind a rifle that's about 8" too long for them), and 'high capacity magazines of 10 rounds or more" (that did little besides drive up the prices of pre-ban mags to levels usually reserved for gold and platinum market traders).
From 1994 to 2004, the weapons that were supposedly banned were still readily available, they just couldn't have a name (AK 47) or be able to have 3 of the above features. Want to use standard capacity mags in your AR? It just couldn't have a bayonet lug, a detachable flash hider, or a telescoping stock. So you could have your Colt HBAR Sporter or your Maadi Misr with a pistol grip and use standard capacity mags (20-75 rds depending).
Pretty stupid, huh? Well when you stop to consider that the models specifically outlawed were taken from a catalog, you get the idea that those who write the laws, know exactly dick about what they're writing about.
Then stop to consider what has happened in the last 10 days. Sales of sport utility rifles have surpassed anything seen before. Not even the great Obama Gun Rush of 2008 can compare. Magazine sales equaling 3.5 years occurred in just 72 hrs.
In 1994 the internet was in its infancy. Information was still mostly guarded by what we now call the 'mainstream media' and all the resources they had at their disposal. They controlled the narrative. Gun owners were largely unable to muster the kinds of numbers to affect the legislation, other than to force the bill's authors to insert a 10 yr sunset provision in it.
Now it's 2012, bordering on 2013, and the 'mainstream media' no longer controls the narrative. The research capabilities of the MSM are now at the fingertips of every American who can see with their own two eyes the fallacy of what has been tried before. The anti gun groups like the Brady Campaign, the Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, and the Violence Policy Center have all been exposed as the shysters and morally bankrupt hucksters they really are. They no longer have the ear of the media. They barely cling to relevancy, this in the face of two losses at the Supreme Court that completely destroyed the entirety of their core argument: Namely that American citizens do not have an individual right to keep and bear arms.
So you see, the cat is long out of the bag. The average American knows what's at stake. Don't believe me? Walk into First Stop, or Cabela's, or Scheels, or any other gun store in the country and see for yourselves.
