Just because I happened to find this before MSD replied, allow me to pick this article apart.
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While manufacturers look for a boom in business as people buy up previously banned weapons like AK-47s, Uzis and TEC-9s, police chiefs warn of an upsurge in crime.
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Wrong, these weapons were not banned. These weapons were and are still controlled by the National Firearms Act of 1934. The semi-automatic versions/knockoffs of these guns did fall under the ban, but only those manufactured after 9/13/94. Modifying the firearms many times still made it legal to sell even while the ban was in place. Cosmetic things were affected but not functionality.
Many liberal police chiefs bought into this idea, now they are saying crime will go up because in a year, when it doesn't, they will look stupid. If a person is going to commit a crime, they aren't going to go, "Well damn, the gun I was going to use is on the AWB list...guess I can't commit that crime now".
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Just over a year after the San Francisco shootings, President Bill Clinton signed Feinstein's bill into law. It banned the sale of 19 specific semiautomatic weapons and ammunition clips of 10 rounds or more.
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Wrong again. The sale of these items was not banned, the continued production of these items was banned. You could still buy and sell items made before 9/13/94 that were grandfathered in. Furthermore, there was no shortage of many of these items, including 30 round magazines for the AR-15. Definition time. A magazine is what you put in the gun that has bullets in it. A clip is a strip of metal that holds bullets. You load magazines from clips.
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Loopholes allowed manufacturers to keep many weapons on the market simply by changing their names or altering some of their features or accessories. And because existing weapons and large ammo clips were protected by a "grandfather" provision, many pre-ban guns remained in use.
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Proof positive that it was based on cosmetic features rather than functionality. They changed the way it looked and it was legal now, no function change.
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"The bill's not perfect; we could have written a better bill," Feinstein says now. "I just didn't know how craven the gun manufacturers would be."
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Lets see, you make a law that will force me out of business if I don't change the way I do things. What the hell did you expect!!
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Studies done by pro- and antigun groups as well as the Justice Department show conflicting results on whether the ban helped reduce crime.
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I'm sorry, I haven't seen one study that says this has worked. If anyone has this information, please direct it my way so I can take a look at it.