THE FEDERAL Crime Control Act of 1994, also known as the "assault weapons ban," was recently allowed to expire due to a 10-year sunset provision. Anti-gun groups such as the Brady Campaign lobbied intensely to renew and expand the ban, attempting to take advantage of the public's fears and general lack of knowledge about the issue. Though anti-gun groups would have Americans believe that this was a significant loss in the war against crime and terrorism, Americans should not accept these baseless claims.
The term "assault weapon" was coined by the anti-gun movement in an attempt to demonize certain weapons and blur the line between automatic and semi-automatic weapons. It has no factual basis in firearms language. The assault weapons ban only affected semi-automatic, and not automatic, firearms. Semi-automatic technology, in which one bullet is fired per trigger squeeze, has been around for over 100 years and is commonplace in sporting and hunting rifles. Contrary to what the anti-gun lobby would have America believe, these weapons do not "spray" bullets, and they are not machine guns. Such weapons, including AK-47s and Uzis, will continue to be tightly restricted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The main reason why the assault weapons ban was allowed to expire was its ineffectiveness. The ban was passed with the intent of decreasing crime. However, the banned weapons were only used in about 1 percent of crimes involving firearms. Numerous government-funded studies determined that the ban did not decrease crime. Even anti-gun groups, while lobbying for the renewal of the ban, hypocritically conceded its ineffectiveness in some of their public statements.
The assault weapons ban was also allowed to expire because its effects were purely cosmetic. The ban did not affect the functionality of the firearms; instead, it restricted certain "menacing" cosmetic features, such as threaded barrels, folding stocks, pistol grips and bayonet lugs. Has anyone been bayoneted lately?
The ban, contrary to what many believe, did not remove any of these semi-automatic weapons from the street. Instead, a grandfather clause allowed weapons produced before the ban to continue to be bought and sold legally. The ban merely eliminated the manufacture or importation of dozens of semi-automatic weapons, based solely on a few common cosmetic characteristics. However, similar versions of these weapons, without the banned features but with the same functionality, were produced in large quantities during the ban's 10-year life.
Despite all of the facts, one has to ask why the assault weapons ban is still so popular in national polls. This can largely be attributed to the public's lack of knowledge as to what these weapons truly are. Confusion over the difference between semi-automatic and automatic weapons leads many to mistakenly conclude that these weapons are machine guns. In an attempt to exploit the public's fears, the anti-gun lobby claimed that the assault weapons ban was a crucial tool in the war on crime and terrorism.
However, it seems unlikely that the Sept. 11 hijackers chose box cutters because they could not legally purchase a new weapon with the banned cosmetic features. The plain truth, confirmed by numerous studies, is that criminals rarely purchase their weapons through legal channels. Unfortunately, the assault weapons ban did absolutely nothing to prevent criminals or terrorists from obtaining weapons illegally.
Even if one adopts the stance that the Second Amendment is not an absolute right, one should acknowledge that citizens' rights should not be limited without a legitimate reason for doing so. No rational person, with all of the facts at hand, can possibly conclude that the 1994 assault weapons ban made America safer.
Even those who are proponents of gun control should concede that the assault weapons ban was ineffective. It did not decrease crime, it did not significantly affect the very weapons it attempted to ban and it did not decrease the number or the deadliness of weapons available to criminals through illegal channels.
In the years to come, as crime levels do not rise, and the ban is not renewed, gun control advocates will realize the fallacy of their position with regards to the assault weapons ban. The American people should rest easy knowing that the expiration of this ban will have absolutely no effect on America's crime rate.
Stafford Bowers is a fourth year in the School of Commerce.
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