A bit of history on the AR-15 in America and how we got in this mess

[Woodswalker]

A bit of history on how we got into this mess. Let's go back to the 1980s. At that time ARs were frowned upon by a good portion of even the gun owner and hunting community with a general consensus at the time of "What the Hell do you need a Gun like that for". That Era collected WW1 Bolt Action Springfield's, Mauser bolt action K98s or many liked the M1 Garand with it's low capacity mags.
Now lets move to 1990. Gun manufacturers saw the possibility in making big profits in possibly marketing AR-15 rifles and the gun crowd responded enthusiastically.
Then in 1994 law makers and President Bill Clinton saw what could end up being a disaster with the proliferation of these type weapons being sold to the public. They enacted the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban which halted the sale of weapons designed for no other purpose than killing people.
Yep a small percentage of the gun owner community were upset but things settled down and not being able to buy a military assault rifle and 30 round mags became the norm and all was fine.
Now fast forward to 2004 with a Republican Congress and George Bush Jr at the helm the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban was removed from the books opening a Pandora's box that might well never be closed. Gun makers immediately marketed their new toys with flashy ads and marketing and the AR-15 quickly became the darling of the gun owner community with the ability to kill coyotes to defending yourself from a rogue government.
So here we are today with years and years of American gun makers selling military assault rifles by the millions to a Gun Nutters nation wide because it's their God given right to own one now there's more of these types of weapons out there that we'll every be able to do anything about. Even if somehow lawmakers could pass a complete ban on the manufacturer and sale of these weapons it's too late. Pandora's box has been open by our beloved former president George Bush and we live in a society where you have to live with the idea that some maniac can still obtain these types of weapons that really couldn't be designed any better for killing large numbers of people in minutes. So this is where we are folks....

[fescuerescue]

1. It didn't really halt sales in 1994 though. It accelerated them

They gun manufacturers removed the bayonet mount or the threaded barrel and kept selling them.

In fact production and sales ramped up on the new rifles without threads or bayonet mounts.

Bastards.

[okaawhatever]

2. K & R nt

[Kaleva]

3. Assault weapons remained legal to own, buy or sell when the AWB was in effect.

About a million were grandfathered in and high capacity magazines manufactured in foreign countries prior to the ban going into effect were allowed to be imported into the US and sold.

"According to the 2004 National Institute of Justice Assessment of the ban, it had one big one: Assault weapons and large-capacity magazines manufactured before the effective date of the ban were “grandfathered” and thus legal to possess and transfer. That’s a whole lot of firepower:

In 1990, there were an estimated 1 million privately owned assault weapons in the U.S. that would have been grandfathered.
Americans possessed an estimated 25 million guns equipped with large-capacity magazines in 1994, and gun industry sources estimated that -- including aftermarket items for repairing and extending magazines -- there were at least 25 million LCMs available in the U.S. as of 1995, with at least 4.7 million pre-ban LCMs imported into the U.S. during the ban."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/was-last-assault-weapons-ban-effective-flna1B8004972

From the OP:

"They enacted the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban which halted the sale of weapons designed for no other purpose than killing people."

Facts, easy to find, prove the above claim to be false.

[hack89]

4. Production and sales of AR-15s peaked during the AWB

The law was that poorly written. After making cosmetic changes, the gun manufacturers had legal versions of AR-15s in the stores before the law went into effect.

Google Federal AWB compliant rifles and see for yourself.

[Woodswalker]

5. Please read the link below

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Assault_Weapons_Ban
Although not perfect the law did curtail the sale of these type weapons. It's complicated and gun manufacturers are very clever at finding loopholes correct, but nevertheless if left in place and built upon we probably wouldn't be in this mess we are today.
I grew up in this era and have been a shooter and hunter the entire time starting at the age of 14, I'm 65 today and have watched the the path we have been led down since the law was taken off the books in 2004. I can tell you first hand that during the ban you never saw an Ak or AR or variant in any gun store anywhere. In today's gun shops there's dozens of ARs and variants and they often outnumber non assault type firearms on the shelves. I could get more specific and tell you the 3 most common large bore bolt actions or the 3 or 4 make and models of shotguns and small caliber firearms you would see in any gun store but that would just confuse those I'm trying to enlighten here and be boring.
During the ban large gun manufacturers didn't even focus on the assault weapons because there basically wasn't one. Today there's an entire industry around these weapons for killing humans with forums, clubs, stores that specialize in them, guns shows are packed to the brim with so called black rifles today being bought up by eager buyers faster than the vendors can put them out.
So for those here trying to spread the false narrative of the 1994 AWB being totally ineffective your either a gun nutter or you really believed the Right Wing hokum served up in 2004 by head chef George Bush Jr.
When the ban was lifted in 2004 the flood gates were open with large firearm manufacturers jumping in and leading the charge.

[hack89]

6. AR-15 production peaked during the AWB

Huge spikes in 1994 and again in 1999. Look at the chart in the below link.

Even while the ban was in effect, barring the production of certain kinds of assault weapons, gun manufacturers got around it by creating new “postban” models of guns that went by different names.

Olympic Arms began selling a version known as the PCR — “politically correct rifle” — that lacked a threaded barrel and a bayonet lug, two of the features Congress objected to. Colt stopped making the AR-15, but it made the Colt Match Target, which looks pretty similar.

This has happened at the state level, too: California has an assault weapons ban, but entrepreneurial gun manufacturers have found ways to modify the AR-15 to get around it.

https://www.vox.com/2016/6/14/11924544/ar-15-orlando-assault-weapons

The rifle that was used at Sandy Hook was legal under the Federal AWB. That is because it was legal under CT's AWB, which was based on the federal one but "stronger".

[SYFROYH]

7. The greatest marketing campaign for ARs etc was the AWB

And every time we talk about renewing it we cause another round of panic buying and higher profits for gun makers and sellers.

The irony is amazing.