General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Some common sense gun control. [View all]madville
(7,408 posts)The Assault Weapons Ban as we know it was a joke. You could still buy an AR-15 or AK clone, they just had a different name or different cosmetic features or lack thereof. When someone calls for reinstating the 1994 ban that's a good indication they are not very knowledgable about the gun control debate.
There are billions of high capacity magazines in circulation, the last ban made them go up in price a bit because there were no new ones allowed but used ones were available for an inflated price. The proposed bill in Congress would also ban sale or transfer of existing magazines, that's not going to gain any traction in my opinion.
Banning private sales could be doable, many states already require transactions to go through a FFL and background checks, costs $20-50 usually.
More in depth background checks is the most likely action but won't prevent most cases like Newtown or the NY firefighter shooting, one was a family member's firearms and the other was already a felon that had a straw purchaser buy them.