Myth: The 1994 (former) Federal Assault Weapons Ban was effective

Fact: “ … we cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation’s recent drop in gun violence.”¹

Fact: The ban covered only 1.39% of the models of firearms on the market, so the ban’s effectiveness is automatically limited.

Fact: “The ban has failed to reduce the average number of victims per gun murder incident or multiple gunshot wound victims.”²

Fact: “The public safety benefits of the 1994 ban have not yet been demonstrated.”³

Fact: “The ban triggered speculative price increases and ramped-up production of the banned firearms”⁴

Fact: “The ban … ramped-up production of the banned firearms prior to the law’s implementation”⁵ and thus increased the total supply over the following decade.

Fact: The Brady Campaign claims that “After the 1994 ban, there were 18% fewer “assault weapons” traced to crime in the first eight months of 1995 than were traced in the same period in 1994”. However they failed to note (and these are mentioned in the NIJ study) that:

1. Assault weapons” traces were minimal before the ban (due to their infrequent use in crimes), so an 18% change enters the realm of statistical irrelevancy.
2. Fewer “assault weapons” were available to criminals because collectors bought-up the available supply before the ban.

This is an excerpt from “Gun Facts” by Guy Smith, available free from http://www.gunfacts.info