BOISE, Idaho – The expiration Monday of a 10-year federal ban on assault weapons means firearms such as TEC-9s can now be legally bought – a development that has critics upset and gun owners and sellers pleased.
The 1994 ban, signed by President Clinton, outlawed 19 types of military-style assault weapons. A clause directed that the ban expire unless Congress specifically reauthorized it, which it did not.
Some of the 19 – foreign-made weapons including the AK-47 and Uzi – are still banned under a 1989 law prohibiting imports of specific automatic weapons.
Studies by pro- and antigun groups, as well as the Justice Department, show conflicting results on whether the ban helped reduce crime. Loopholes allowed manufacturers to keep many weapons on the market simply by changing their names or altering some of their features or accessories.
The differences between assault weapons and guns on the market before the ban expired are “cosmetic,” Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, said Monday on CBS’s “The Early Show.”
“To lead anyone to believe we’re talking about a class of guns that’s more powerful, makes bigger holes, shoots more rapidly is not true,” LaPierre said.
Gun shop owners said the expiration of the ban would have little effect on the types of guns and accessories that are typically sold and traded across their counters every day.
However, the expiration could result in sharply lower prices for some weapons, said Sanford Abrams, owner of Valley Guns in Baltimore and vice president of the Maryland Licensed Firearms Dealers Association.
He said some pre-ban, military-style rifles with a combination of banned features such as flash suppressors, bayonet mounts and detachable magazines had been trading at gun shows for up to $1,600, but the price could drop to less than $900 since those characteristics will again be allowed on new weapons.
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