The current gun control laws in the United States are little more than a group of knee-jerk reactions based in fear and hardly anything else.  The most infamous piece of anti-firearm legislation was the Federal Assault Weapons Ban.  This piece of legislation made it illegal in the US to buy, sell, own, or manufacture any rifle with one or more of the following features: a pistol grip, an adjustable stock, a bayonet mount, or a threaded barrel. It also bans pistols that either have an external magazine or an empty weight of 1.4 kg or more, as well as any weapon that is a semi-automatic version of a weapon that has fully automatic capabilities or any magazine for a weapon that exceeds a capacity of ten rounds.

Almost none of these features have any impact on a firearm’s ability to kill, meaning that the Assault Weapons Ban does little more than prevent firearms from looking scary and inconveniencing collectors.

Supporters of the Assault Weapons Ban say that the ban takes dangerous “assault weapons” off of the streets, lowering crime rates.  They hope that making these weapons illegal will make it harder for criminals to obtain them, resulting in them not committing the crimes.  They believe that this will cause a significant drop in gun violence and result in a safer America.

The idea that banning assault weapons will make it difficult for criminals to obtain deadly weapons is comforting, but completely untrue.  In the ten years that the Assault Weapons Ban has been active many studies found almost no drop in gun deaths, just that the murder weapons were different.  People were still being shot, but it was through a different means.

This is because the ‘assault weapons’ that this ban is supposed to be removing do not exist.  There is no such thing as an assault weapon, they are simply imaginary guns that look scary and are not any more or less effective than a standard firearm.

The Assault Weapons Ban has shown that it has almost no impact on gun violence and it prevents honest hobbyists from enjoying their firearms to the fullest.  It needs to be recognized as ineffective legislation and never signed into law again.  Any law that does not help the people and simply restricts their life choices is useless and disregards the basic American principle of personal freedom.  The Assault Weapons Ban is one such law and should be recognized for what it is and treated accordingly.

The Assault Weapons Ban is a useless piece of legislation that should never have been signed into law.  It has had a negligible effect on gun violence and prevents hobbyists from enjoying their hobby to the fullest.  The dangerous weapons that it was designed to remove don’t even exist.  The list of the Ban’s failures goes on.  It was a failed attempt to protect Americans from an imaginary threat.