i was 14 in '94, so nobody gave a shit what i thought about anything...........didn't even know what an AR-15 was in fact.  all i know was that i saved up $675 from my summer job and made my dad buy a beretta 92fs for me to shoot and a magazine capacity limit made it way the hell more expensive than it should have been...........

was it a drawn out fight?  they sneak it up on us?  what'd you do?  what'd the prices and supply do?  what brought it up in the first place?  blah blah blah, etc..........

That was pre-internet. Nobody really knew what was happening at the time. NRA newsletters were the best source of info for the average gun-owner back then.....

I was 15 when it passed, I told my mom how stupid I thought it was etc etc etc. She agreed but I don't think she really cared.


That was my introduction to politics and a wakeup call w/ a snooze button. Looking back on it several years later it opened my eyes to a great number of things. In a way it's also the reason why I separated from the flock.

The most important fact is that it was the end result of having a Democrat President, and a Democrat Congress.

Of course, Clinton admitted that passage of the bill cost the Democrats Congress (and that's the truth), but he felt it was worth it.

Our local Congressman was a crook named Jack Brooks and he was a very powerful chairman of the Ways and Means Committee with a ton of seniority.  His liberalism had been overlooked by sportsmen in the area as he had been an NRA 100% voter.  He was talked-into voting for the bill and as a result, a grassroots effort started that led to his being voted out of office.

His comment: "Voting for the AWB cost me my seat in Congress."

It's the only thing the crooks understand.

What happened was a "rash" of shooting happened.  Office shootings, school shootings, etc, etc.  The media reported  on these stories non-stop making it seem like the whole nation was being terrorized by evil assault rifles and masses of people bought it. So from that Fienstien and her fellow nazis formed legislation and it passed.   The rest is history.

The only thing I remember.  I was maybe 18 at the time and just purchased my first gun, a 10/22 (also have a browning BPS 12 that dad gave me for 16th bday).  After getting the .22 I went to wal-mart and bought a 25 rd mag for it.  Went back some time later to buy a couple more and they were gone.  I asked the guy at the sports counter if he had anymore in stock and he told me to ask Clinton, and explained what happened.  

Quoted: School me on AWB history

Yes, it is HISTORY!!!!

Twas 17, and I was unhappy about it because at the time I knew I had to have an AR15 and thought like many other uneducated people that they were completely banned.  

I don't remember there being a lot of talk about it in the newsmedia and I paid a decent amount of attention to events even then.  Come to think of it I can't remember a whole lot of anything except the day after it passed the local paper had a page and a half dedicated to it and showed pictures of AR15s and AKs.  It was looked at as a good thing and there was some horrible reporting (the usual mis-information regarding semis vs. auto, etc.).

There were some editorials during that week condoning it and some praising it; many thought that gang violence and crime would just disappear.  Unrealistic expectatoins from BS legislatoin.  

I wasn't even a gun owner at the time and there was almost no one in my family who was.  Through other friends and their family did I learn that others felt outrage and anger that I felt seeing the ban pass.  Most of my fellow high school students could care less as I lived in a city border suburb that was featuring some of the cool gang violence of the time and sporting shiny new metal detectors.  

I was going to grade school at the time and kept wondering why people on the TV and radio kept talking about street-sweepers.  I'm like "The street looks clean enough to me".

Damn. I feel old.

mission accomplished!!!!!

I watched C-Span, many of the hearings, etc.  The news was as reported above.

The Congressional hearings were dog and pony shows, all obviously rehearsed, scripted.  The supposedly pro-gun senators and congressmen basically laid down for it, especially the Republican Rep, Bill whatshisname, Bill McCollum, the little geek with the bow tie..  He practically handed our rights over to the antis.  And he was considered 100% pro gun!  He was the best we had going for us in those days, and he bent over for them.  The pro gun Congress critters gave feeble defense of our rights, did not call the anti-gunners on obvious distortions, such as referring to the guns targeted as machine guns.  It was maddening.  I would get so mad, almost yelling at the TV, You idiots, you should say xxxx!!!

Police chiefs and even the head of the ATF, John Magaw, lied their asses off in front of these hearings.  It was shameful.  (Yes, this is the same John Magaw that was put in charge of TSA and did not want pilots to have guns in the cockpit.  Even after it was forced down his throat by law, he still dragged his feet on arming pilots.  He was finally fired from TSA.  Good riddance.)

The NRA was busy trying to be "reasonable" about gun control.  At that time they were trying to kiss the asses of the duck hunters and skeet shooters, almost trying to disassociate from us evil black rifle shooters.  Back then, the NRA just did not get it.  I think they do now.  I have to admit, since getting rid of the former president, and getting people like Charleton Heston, Wayne LaPierre, and Ted Nugent on board, and the current president and board, they now get it.  

The Gun Owners of America and Citizens Committee to Keep and Bear Arms were our strongest allies.  I still send them checks, support them solidly.  I have not yet rejoined the NRA.  Perhaps I should now.

Any organization, response from pro gun people was always mailbox late... a week later you would get a letter from some group, and maybe two months later there might be some little pro gun rally that the media ignored.  

I had the frustrating experience of having one of my letters to the editor of a major area newspaper heavily edited in such a way that it changed the context and made me sound like a nutcase.  When I phoned them about this, they simply hung up on me.  What could I do?  Nothing.

The antis were very well organized, had it all planned for many years, working on this since the mid 80's, when they finally figured they could not get handguns banned.  They tried many times.  So, they turned their efforts to the next best thing.  They looked around and said, hey, there is an opportunity (semiautos).  They wanted to ban all guns, especially handguns, but any guns was good.  They had a step by step plan for eventually banning all guns.  You can see their plan and how it was carried out in England and Australia... EXACTLY the same techniques, same arguments, same laws.  Only thing that has slowed it down in the USA is that damned 2nd Amendment thing, and so many stupid Americans think the Constitution means what it says in plain English.  But look to the history of the total gun ban in those countries... this is the same plan, and it is international.

What is different now?  INTERNET!  We are organized.  We know what is happening NOW, and can organize responses NOW, within seconds.  We cannot be ignored.  The truth gets out.  And it turns out we are not "lone nuts".  We are everywhere.  This is OUR country, and we are taking it back.

pre internet? it's been around since 68

I was reading newsgroups back then, thinking how does this crap pass?

The first ban on semi-auto weapons was proposed in 1989. 16  bills regulating "assault weapons" were proposed in the House and Senate. Every year from 1989 on, some type of ban was proposed in Congress. Every year from 1989 to 1993, the NRA defeated the efforts. By the time of the 103rd Congress that passed the bill, there were 41 separate bills offered regulating assault weapons.

In 1993, Clinton insisted on pushing the ban - despite the advice from Jack Brooks and Dick Gephardt warning him that Democrats would pay at the polls for it. Clinton would have none of it though and put the full weight of the Democratic party behind the vote. Since they controlled the House, Senate and White House, they had the power to make it happen.

In the Senate, Diane Feinstein proposed an amendment to S.1607 (Senate Amendment to Omnibus Crime Bill H.R. 3355), on November 9. After eight days of debate, the amendment was agreed to 56-43. This would be the language that would later become the assault weapons ban.

However, at the time, the House had not passed any form of ban in the Omnibus Crime Bill, so the Senate bill still had to go to conference committee. The Senate passed the bill in November 1993; but no conference committee was formed for months as leadership wrangled over the bill.

Meanwhile, in the House, a separate bill banning assault weapons was proposed - H.R. 4296. After some debate, the bill came to a vote and was passed 216-214.  137 Republicans and 77 Democrats opposed the ban.  38 Republicans, 177 Democrats, and 1 Independent supported it.

That signaled the beginning of ten long years since it was now clear there was a majority in the House for a ban. The Democrats began the conference committee for H.R. 3355 just two weeks after this vote. Several attempts were made to strip the ban out of the bill in conference committee but none succeeded.

The final bill passed in August and was signed by then President Clinton on September 13, 2004.

I called a buddy of mine from overseas and told him to buy me a Bushmaster before the ban kicked in...total buying frenzy.

PK, You weren't reading newsgroups from home on your personal computer, guy, hah!  And very few people had computer access, or even knew what it existed in '68.  How were YOU reading newsgroups?  It looked like the AWB passed with collusion from both sides of the aisle.  

In the next election, the Republicans got the message, and so did the Dems.

Quoted: You weren't reading newsgroups from home on your personal computer, guy.  And very few people had computer access.  How were YOU reading newsgroups?

Yes, i was. Dial up internet has been around since at least 1992. Just because YOU didn't have it, doesn't mean it didn't exist.

PK, I am sorry, I misunderstood.  I though you were talking about you reading newsgroups in '68, you were talking about '92.  Yes, the internet existed then.  I was punching cards and using Fortran and Cobol in 1970.  Yes, I have been around a while.

But even in '92, few people had home pc's and fewer had internet.

Quoted: PK, I am sorry, I misunderstood.  I though you were talking about you reading newsgroups in '68, you were talking about '92.  Yes, the internet existed then.  I was punching cards and using Fortran and Cobol in 1970.  Yes, I have been around a while. But even in '92, few people had home pc's and fewer had internet.

I've been in the matrix a while

Quoted: pre internet? it's been around since 68 I was reading newsgroups back then, thinking how does this crap pass?

alt.politics.guns

I was always fascinated with guns especially military ones since I was a child in the 70's & 80's I remember hearing the talk of the AWB in 1993 but I was a young Lance Corpral trying to buy his first car and spending money on women & drink. I did buy my first gun a Ruger P89 w/ two standard (15) rd capacity magazines because of the then looming AWB. I was very ignorant back then and did not know I could even buy an AR-15. I figured that I was in the infantry and could play with the real thing all I wanted too. If I only knew then what I know now.  I have since been trying to educate my family and friends.  

thanks guys, got a pretty decent picture now on the AWB

along with computer history

10 years ago no one would be calling BS on obviously forged documents.  CBS and the Dems would have gotten away with it.

Ahh, the power of computers and internet!  It is a new world out there... cool!