Retro: Clinton AWB, 1994/2004. You, then & now...

[JU-87]

Hi all
This September is the 20 year sad anniversary of the so-called Clinton Assault Weapon Ban. Fortunately it "sun set" 10 years later in Sept., 2004.
Here's the format:
What you had./ What you "wished" you had (in Sept., 1994)
Then...
What you bought when ban expired in Sept., 2004.

I'll start.

BEFORE: In 1985, I sold a Colt SP1, and bought a Springfield M1A ( couldn't afford both at the time.) What was I thinking! BUT I did buy 8- M14 mags , new in wrap, for $4 each .
Bought Glock model 21 in 1992(?), but only had original 2 -13 round mags. Wished I had AR-15, and more Glock mags.

AFTER: I now have more than one AR pattern rifle. Have >55 mags.
Sold M1A for AR in 7.62x51. Have 11 mags for it.
When Glock mag prices came down to about $20, I bought TEN! I did add a Glock model 30 during ban, and that uses same normal 13 rd mag.

I stock more ammo too.

[BobK]

I'd rather look back 30 years instead of 20.

I wish I'd bought about a dozen each M-16's, MP5's, M2's, and M-60's.

Then taken the next two years to get all the BATF'er paperwork in place. I'd be sitting on a gold mine today if I had four dozen full auto, civilian-legal, registered NFA items.

I remember when one could easily purchase M-16's. Heck, if you want to look back at the '60's, I remember when you could buy Thompson submachine guns for $125 mail order. If you weren't interested in crossing state lines, you didn't even need to pay the $200 tax stamp.

[Morne]

I owned zero guns before. I own many after.

[captainstormy]

Well, I was 10 in 1994 so I didn't really own any firearms though I was familiar with the use of everything my grandfather owned.

I bought my first handgun on my 21st birthday. Already owned a shotgun. I didn't really buy any rifles until 2005-2006ish if I remember right.

[evan price]

Bought a Glock 21 new right before the 1994 ban.
During the ban I bought and eventually sold off a bunch of Glocks. I also bouht and kept some SIGs.
After the ban, I stocked up on full capacity magazines. Then I started building FALs.
Now, I own more guns than I thought I would ever own.
Truth to tell, if the AWB was somehow re-instated, it wouldn't affect me much at all because most of the stuff that I EDC are revolvers and single-stack handguns or pump shotguns.
The FALs would be the only real issue.
I've owned ARs and I don't like them. I personally do not enjoy shooting an AR. Don't feel the need to buy one.

[Klingon00]

BEFORE: I had zero guns of my own. In 1994 I was in my first year of college that banned guns on campus. My father owned a few guns but we rarely shot them growing up (anti-gun mother). I was not very politically active but did lean Republican with Libertarian tendencies. I had a few friends in college who owned SKS and other guns.

AFTER: I was married, had a home of my own. I had been gifted a few of my fathers guns since they weren't being used and needed better storage conditions. These where hunting guns, certainly nothing covered or affected by the AWB. The extent of my shooting was mostly plinking in the woods while camping. Very much a Republican politically but gun politics were still not at the forefront of my consciousness. I was vaguely aware of the AWB at all, but did notice when it sunset because the talking heads on TV were very much wringing their hands. I remember shaking my head at their unfounded fear, but still didn't feel it affected me much one way or the other.

That all changed late in 2004 when I had my first child. My world view on firearms and self defense began to come into focus and I began to take the defense of my home and my family more seriously. It wasn't too long after that I began to hear that Ohio had a concealed carry law. It took a few more years before I began to seriously investigate how to obtain one but that's another story...

I have attempted to educate myself on what life was like back then but I mostly lack first hand knowledge. I can't even imagine what it would be like to experience another one which is one of the reasons I fight for my 2A rights however I can.

[Brian D.]

After the sunset in '04 I had some double column handgun magazines that badly needed either new springs or total replacement. That's where my gun dollars went for a while. I sure wasn't going to buy such magazines during the ban, I'd have needed a Brink's truck to take enough cash to those few vendors who were sitting on them.

[Bruenor]

Bought my first Rifle, a Chinese SKS, with a sardine can full of ammo and several 30 round magazines, just before the 94 Ban went into effect. made a few purchases between then and 2004 but was living in Cleveland most of that time, and they had their own Registration scheme. I stopped by the registration desk in the justice center on a number of occasions to ask what the firearms laws were in Cleveland "because I was considering purchasing a firearm". I never could get anyone there to tell me anything about Cleveland's Firearms laws....

Moved out of Cleveland in November of 2003. In 2004 my collection grew a bit because I landed in the midst of a dozed sportsmans clubs ranging from 4-20 miles from my house. I joined several o fthem, and got introduced to all sorts of new shooting events, and had to outfit for them. Finally a place to shoot, AWB sunset, and CCW became avail in Ohio. 2004 was a great year.

Still have that SKS, and the original sealed sardine can of ammo, but it rarely comes out to play any more.

[Sevens]

I had revolvers, a T/C Contender (single shot), one .45cal 1911 pistol, a 10mm cal S&W 3rd Gen (8 shot mag) and owned nothing that held more than 10 rounds of ammo. A couple years before, I owned a commercial (non-GI) M1 Carbine with a couple 15s and one 30-rd magazine that I had sold off at a show (which I now regret...)

When the Crime Bill was set to go in to effect, I happened to have a little dough and I begrudgingly purchased a Taurus PT-99AF. I had no interest in a 9mm pistol, but it seemed like a "smart" idea to buy a hi-cap while I still could. I got it and an extra magazine. My records indicate that I paid $449.95 for this pistol before tax and the extra mag in May, 1994. I bought a Taurus because I had long been an avid reader of Guns & Ammo magazine and the big handgun writer at the time (Jan Libourel) had me convinced that Taurus products were a darn good low-buck alternative to the higher priced guns they imitated. I truly have no idea what a Beretta 92F was priced at in the Spring of '94, but I really didn't care. (I also bought a 30-rd knockoff brand of magazine to fit a Mini-14 rifle, even though I didn't own a Mini-14, and still do not. )

I can say with 100% honesty that I had no true, burning desire for any 9mm handgun at the time. I had no real need, want or love for a Taurus, or a hi-cap pistol that held 15+1 rounds. I liked the gun in the store, but no more than that. To this very day, I don't think I've ever made such an emotionless gun purchase.

The pistol was just okay. It ran most of the time, giving occasional failures to feed. About the only thing I ever fed it was whatever Vance's had for cheap money in 9mm. A lot of Norinco and some UMC. Although I had been handloading for more than 5 years when I got the Taurus, it didn't make "sense" to me at the time to bother handloading 9mm ammo because I could get the stuff for around $6 a box.

Many years down the road, the Taurus just hung around as something I owned and didn't do much with. Considered selling it a couple times, but back then, I didn't know what the laws were with regards to private sales and I knew that any "premium" I had in my hands because it was a hi-cap would be slaughtered when I sold or traded it to a gun store... as I had no idea that I could privately sell if I wanted.

Eventually, I snagged some 9mm dies and crafted some of my own ammo for the PT-99AF and a light bulb went off in my head. All of a sudden, this "meh" pistol began to run ALL OF THE TIME. At no point was it ever a target gun, and it never had an exceptional trigger, but it was a decent looking thing and with my own ammo, it never ever failed and it became a laugh-riot to have THAT much ammo on board when I was mowing down plastic bottles, empty cans, and whatever else I could find to shoot at.

These days, I don't shoot it much. Drag it out maybe once a year. It still runs all time with my ammo. I haven't bought factory 9mm ammo (other than high-dollar defense ammo) for... jeez, let's just say that I haven't bought it since the millennium clicked over. I have a bevy of 9mm guns these days and I've absolutely warmed up to the caliber. The Taurus wears a different set of grips now, and I broke the adjustable rear sight one day in a totally ham-fisted moment on the range that was 100% my fault. Rather than ship it off to Taurus (for what could be 18 months!), I elected to have my buddy weld the rear sight. (that's another story... don't freak out, it's seriously not that bad and others have gone before me...) and though you can see that something was done to it, it's not as obvious as you might imagine. The sight is only windage adjustable now and the gun runs with aplomb whenever it sees the light of day.

[curmudgeon3]

Forgive me for injecting politics, but every time this subject comes up the first thing that enters my mind is how the RINOs reacted to this issue in '94 by taking advantage of the political expediency of voting with the anti-RKBA majority to enhance their political careers. It has served to make me (and others) a single-issue voter because if they were willing to infringe upon our 2A-protected freedoms to further their interests, what other individual freedoms would they be willing to vote against in the future if the political winds change direction again ¿

[Klingon00]

Forgive me for injecting politics, but every time this subject comes up the first thing that enters my mind is how the RINOs reacted to this issue in '94 by taking advantage of the political expediency of voting with the anti-RKBA majority to enhance their political careers. It has served to make me (and others) a single-issue voter because if they were willing to infringe upon our 2A-protected freedoms to further their interests, what other individual freedoms would they be willing to vote against in the future if the political winds change direction again ¿

This is something I find most troubling. In fact in the Senate, the GOP had a higher percentage voting for it than the DNC did (Both in the ~95%).

Times have certainly changed since then and in some ways for the better. I think the GOP was pushing a strong on crime stance back then, that got caught up in anti 2A rights due in large part to the attempt on Reagan's life not long before. Even though a majority of the GOP voted for the bill, the next midterm election that saw the Republican revolution take over congress with the "Contract with America".

I do recall though that the DNC got most of the blame for the AWB along with many other failures though and in large part due to Bill Clinton making anti-gun legislation one of his big issues. I was not sorry to see that happen at the time.

[Mustang380gal]

I think the only gun that was "mine" in 1994 was a lever action Winchester rifle in 32 win/special. Ted had a .45/70 Winchester, and some other guns.

Both rifles had to be sold to pay bills when kids started coming. Ted's rifle went to Arizona, and the man he sold it to recently died. The rifle with the rest of the man's collection have been donated to a museum out there. We may need to make a trip and visit it.

I now own a few of my own, my Garand, an M1A, and a couple of handguns. I don't know if any would have been affected by the ban or not. One of these days, I'll have another lever action rifle, and an M1 Carbine, despite the paltry cartridge, just because they are cute.

[Sevens]

I now own a few of my own, my Garand, an M1A, and a couple of handguns. I don't know if any would have been affected by the ban or not.

The ban made it such that any magazines that held MORE than 10 rounds were no longer legal to manufacture for public sale. Any new mags of more than 10 rounds were legal to be produced, but had to be marked "FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ONLY", and if you were caught in possession of any of these, you were breaking the law.

However, all the magazines already in circulation were grandfathered in. That means any that you already owned, any that were still in original packaging and in any dealer's stock, and any that were included with handguns that were in any dealer's stock were also grandfathered in.

For you and an M1A and M1 Carbine, it meant:
--what you had was legal to be owned, and M1A typical mag was 20rds, M1Carb was 15 (30 rd'ers available)
--what you already had became HEAVILY sought after, and could be sold for crazy markup
--you could buy more mags, assuming you had deep pockets and could pay the nutty prices that were being asked
--you could be NEW manufacture mags, but all would be limited to 10 rds either by physical size or construction
--you could buy a new M1A or M1 Carbine, but expect that any mags that came with it would be of 10rd capacity

Also, if you took a magazine that was constructed to hold 10 rounds and you altered it to hold more, that was also against the law.

[Werz]

Before 1994:

• Ruger P85 MKII with two 15-round mags grandfathered
• Inland Division M1 Carbine with multiple 30-round and 15-round mags grandfathered
• Norinco SKS with pre-922(r) magazine modification and multiple 30-round and 20-round mags grandfathered

Couldn't afford much more back then, but I was satisfied. And there was less high-cap mag panic back then than there was last year.

[lar1]

in 94 I turned 21 and my first purchase was a ruger super single six. probably shortly after a glock 21. I remember glock 21 mags hitting $180 in shotgun news. Before that, I just had hunting firearms,