Assault Weapons Ban

Who Needs an AK-47 to Hunt a Deer?

Most hunters would agree—there’s a big difference between a firearm designed for hunting animals and one designed for hunting people. Many hunters agree that it is not sporting to shoot animals with assault weapons. To kill an animal with a weapon that allows rapid repeated fire from a long distance requires little skill on the part of the hunter and gives the animal little chance of escape. It is little more than target practice using a living animal as a target.

Historical perspective

The Gun Control Act of 1968 allows the Federal Government to prohibit the import of guns not designed for sporting purposes. Semiautomatic rifles designed for hunting fire from the shoulder a precisely aimed projectile. Assault weapons, by contrast, are designed to spray from the hip many rounds of ammunition in rapid succession and without precision. Assault weapons are also equipped with combat hardware not suitable for sporting purposes such as large-capacity magazines that can hold up to fifty rounds of ammunition, pistol grips that allow for one-handed firing and even grenade launchers.

It is illegal in every state to hunt animals using more than 10 rounds of ammunition

In 1989, following the infamous Stockton, California shooting in which an assault weapon was used to kill 5 children and injure 29 others, President George H.W. Bush banned certain imported assault weapons.

By 1994, with the proliferation of “cop killer” weapons, law enforcement led the charge for passage of the assault weapons ban as part of President Clinton’s Crime Bill. The legislation banned the future manufacture and importation of semiautomatic assault weapons with no hunting or sporting purpose. Nineteen specific weapons were banned along with manufacture of ammunition clips holding more than 10 rounds. Unfortunately, existing assault weapons, such as the Intratec Tec-DC9 used in the Columbine High School rampage, were “grandfathered” in under law and can still be possessed and sold.

Assault weapons were used to kill 4 ATF agents and wound 16 others at the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco, Texas in 1993.

A 1995 attempt by the U.S. House of Representatives to overturn the ban failed.

On September 13, 2004, the assault weapons ban expired. Here is a list of how Minnesota's Congressional delegation voted:

* Did not hold office at that time.

In 1989, California became the first state to pass its own assault weapons ban. Since then, six states have followed suit: Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.