The 1994 Assault ban is junk. The weapons banned were banned for cosmetic reasons. They look mean. They are all semi automatic and in most cases shoot mid range cartridges. Full autos for sale as a new manufactured weapon were stopped decades ago. Those in exhistance, at the time, were grandfathered in and have to be registered and taxed. Those in private hands are obscenely expensive. Economics 101: high demand low volume = high prices. As in two to three thousand for certian models to over twenty thousand for others. The average joe can't afford the autos.
I am a Police Officer in Michigan and at the time, and even now, knew the ban was garbage. One of the reasons it passed in the first place was because of an admendment that got attached to it. It gave federal monies to local deparments to hire more officers, 100,000 more. How many politicans would vote against such a bill? The headlines the next day would read about how they are soft on crime, don't support the Police, etc. What was not said about the money for the 100,000 officers was that it dried up after only several years (I don't remember the exact number....something around three years.) After the three years the local departments had to find the money to continue employment of those officers. There were a lot of those officers put to the curb and scrambling to find work.
I mentioned "mid range cartridge" earlier in the post. The deer hunting rifles worry me more....no I am not advocating banning them. My body armor at work has been augmented (at my own expense) with metal plates that are rated to stop some of the mid range cartridges. The plates will not stop the 30.06 / .308 / and magnums of the world. The mean looking weapons were easy targets for the politicians to attack.....dads and grandpa's hunting rifles would have sent people through the roof...and rightly so. The 1994 ban should have send people though the roof too!
Common sense gun laws (control) is bull. The second admentment was not put in the U.S. Constitution so people could put food on the table. It was put there to prevent oppressive govenment practices that they had just fought against. Eighty million plus gun owners against the current military, even if only a fraction choose to fight, reguardless of the militarys weapons would be one sided.....against the military. The Iraqis have managed what? Seven hundred kills roughly against our military after the major combat. They use the spray and pray Soviet methods of fighting. Imagine now an internal fight within the states against an oppressive government with the populace actually aiming. It would be over real fast.
A parting comment I want to make is that most of us have never been subjected to a government like Hiters, Stalins, Husseins, North Korea, etc. Many are kidding themselves if they honestly believe that ....it can never happen here. It can happen anywhere under the right set of circumstances and nothing lasts forever. Someday there probably will be a fundemental change to our government. It may be by choice of a voting populace i.e. Hiters Germany......or by the will of a small group (or person) Husseins Iraq. It will happen. When it does I, even as an "agent" of the government, know full well that without the power to resist I even as one of the "agents" will be subject to the will of the oppressive government.
This is not paranoia but historical reality.