What do you remember about the 1994-04 ban??

Valmet

Valmet

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I posed this question over on GlockTalk a few years back and am curious to the recollections of members over here (though some are surely members of both)...

For those of us who have been into firearms long enough, what do you remember about the 1994-2004 Crime Bill ban? I'll start-

- $100-125 Glock magazines
-Neutered ARs with collapsible stocks pinned opened and goofy muzzle-brakes
-Folks paying primo prices for pre-94 AR lowers to slap a then-new 6920 upper on them for a "real" Colt M4A3.
 
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Well to start with Clinton lied. He campaigned on no new gun laws.
I made a lot of money because I knew he would. The year before the election I bought as many ARs, H&Ks and various other rifles of that type as I could afford and sold them for considerably more then I paid after the ban.

It did bring on one positive feature to AR family "The Flat top" The carry handle was one of the five things that were limited. If memory serves me rifles could have only three of the following not all. Carry handle, collapsible stock, bayonet lug, muzzle device and pistol grip.
 
The only Glock magazines that I remember going that high were for the Model 20 10mm. Galil .308 magazines went even higher. On the good side the zillions of Browning High Power magazines around the planet were pre-ban and could be sold as surplus to importers so they remained affordable.

There was an enormous gun buying splurge in anticipation of a worse ban followed by a drastic collapse in gun sales after the ban took effect. Predictably that repeated before and after the last election.

As a consequence of their push for gun control the Democrats were slaughtered in the 1994 mid term election. Predictably that also repeated in the last election. That is the one thing that will convince some of our neighbors that passing more restrictive gun laws in not in their best interest.
 
I remember it like it was yesterday. Mainly because MASS still has it in effect.
The sad part is that banning a firearm based on a couple of superficial features still makes no sense some 23 years later. Nor has it had an effect on gun violence. Legislators can be notoriously slow learners.
 
I'm reminded every time I see my pile of 10-round magazines in hi-cap configuration. Those came with new guns designed to take hi-cap magazines. Totally worthless now, but maybe sometime they will be collector items to remind future generations of how stupid our politicians can get at times.

In that era, I remember trying to find pre-ban mags for my H&K Mark 23 - and when I did, how horribly expensive they were.

John
 
CajunBass said:
Not much. I was into fishing, not shooting back then. I do remember a woman I worked with who had purchased an HK-94 (semi-auto) for if I remember correctly about $600.00 before the ban, selling it for about $2500.00 after.
Click to expand...

Yes that is about what they went for after the ban. I had bought two 91s and two 93s in that absolutely horrible dessert camo that the factory offered then for just under 600 each and sold them for about the same price you mentioned.
 
I remember Feinstein saying "If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an out right ban, picking up every one of them....Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in. I would have done it."

Don't think they won't try it again.
 
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andy52 said:
Yes that is about what they went for after the ban. I had bought two 91s and two 93s in that absolutely horrible dessert camo that the factory offered then for just under 600 each and sold them for about the same price you mentioned.
Click to expand...

Factory desert 91s and 93s are rare birds, as are the 91/93s in woodland camo. Towards the end of the ban 94s were well over $3k.
 
I do remember the Democrats said they lost a lot of seats due to that ban, most voters don't remember much, but we 2A people do remember the names of the dirtbags that voted for it. It made me move out of NY state, because after the sundown of the bill we found out our turncoat Republican Governor Pataki signed a bill making it forever in NYS.
 
I got my Beretta 92FS just before the ban, with a pair of 15-round mags. I was also able to pick up an extra pair of 15-round mags for about $25 each, IIRC. I went to a gun show after the ban went into effect, and those same 15-round mags were $50+ each, with factory 20-round mags going for about $120 each.

I also remember competing in my one and only shooting competition, a more-or-less informal speed shooting match during the ban, organized by the state's RKBA association. The only requirement was that you had to use a high-capacity pistol and mags. Fun times. Saw a shooting demonstration with a guy using an AK47 to obliterate some watermelons and there were attempts to use a bowling ball cannon to launch a bowling ball over a large hill. FYI, they were successful.
 
I remember my M1A came without a bayonet lug, because that would have made it an Evil Assault Weapon.

And I remember discovering that a 10-round Beretta 96 mag, for a 40, would fit and feed 9mm in a 92, and it held twelve of them. :)
 
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