The 1994 AWB passed due to a personal appeal to every US House member by Ronald Reagan.
Perhaps my memory is faulty, (again
) but I don't remember hearing Reagan support the AWB. Clinton pushed it to the hilt.
With the popularity of Self defense, CC and the firearms associated with it the opposition went militant, maybe because gun owners went militant about the guns they owned.
Take a trip back in time through the Gun Digests of the 50’s-60’s and see what guns were popular, check out the prevailing attitude about small concealable handguns it may surprise you.
It doesn't surprise me, I watched it happen. We (gun owners) went "militant" as a REACTION to the laws and restrictions pushed by a few powerful legislators (and all belonged to the same party) while we were "peacefully" enjoying our blued steel and wood.
You could buy an AR-15 or an FAL in those days, too. Few people did. They were expensive, and not well suited for hunting, and so were a niche market, and not even anywhere on the gun banner's radar at the time.
What the ant-gun forces (led by Dodd, Metzenbaum and a few others -and where Schumer got on the bandwagon -note, all the same party...) were focused on, primarily was the "Saturday night special". (which to them meant any handgun in general, but cheap easily concealed pistols in particular). And they took their shot at our "blued steel and wood" too, with the ending of direct mail order sales and the establishment of other restrictions that previously did not exist. (National age restrictions, the FFL system, and creations of prohibited persons as a general class, not as individuals which was what had been the law, previously).
It was later discovered (and only publicized in the gun press) that Dodd had gotten a copy and translation of a 1933 (34?) Nazi gun control law, and large parts of the 68 GCA that he sponsored was virtually a word for word reproduction of that law!!
So here we were, basically living our lives "fat, dumb, and happy", until they essentially bushwacked us in 68. The political unrest of the times, (including the murders of Kennedy, Kennedy, and King, and our own "domestic terrorists, such as the SDS, the Weather Underground and others who were actually exploding BOMBS in public places
) gave the public support push needed to "do something". And they did, do something.
Another little remembered fact is that, at the time, our domestic firearms industry SUPPORTED the proposed GCA 68, because of the import restrictions. The bill was sold to gunmakers as a trade protection measure, and the other parts were downplayed. Not exactly a lie, but far from the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
The current cycle of demonization of semi autos (and gun ownership, lawful self defense and etc.) began in 1986. With Patrick Purdey's mass murder in the Stockton schoolyard, all the elements came together. Mass murder, Children!!! at a school!!, the killer killing himself at the end, and leaving only grief, frustration, ANGER, and a semi auto AK-47 variant to focus on. and, boy did they focus on that!!
Following copycat, and near copycat shootings, certain politicians decided that this was a stalking horse that they could ride until it foundered, and then beat votes out of its dead carcass for years to come. Since the bulk of these politicians were all from the same party, when they rose to full leadership of that party, its no surprise that they made the issue a political plank of the party they now controlled.
If you want the answer to why gun control has become not just a social, but a political partisan issue to the degree that now exists, the answer is simple. Certain people in one political party worked very hard, and very successfully to make it so.
or that's how I see it, anyway.
Why are "assault weapons" so much in demand today, when they weren't back then? The answer is simple. Ban anything (and fail to make it all inclusive, complete and permanent) and you create a desire in the people to own them. call it forbidden fruit, or anything else, but if you want to make something MORE popular, just get the government to try and outlaw it.
