I apologize for the political vein of this link, but it does shed some light on the assault weapon ban expiring and its implications if you look past the criticism of a MoveOn.org ad campaign:
http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=258
I removed most of political content in the quote.
Quote:
Contrary to what the ad clearly implies, any weapon that can fire 300 rounds per minute remains illegal for civilians to own without specific clearance by the US Department of Justice.
In fact, machine guns have been tightly regulated since the passage of the National Firearms Act in 1934, in the wake of the gangster era. Legal ownership of a machine gun requires an extensive federal background check, fingerprinting, signed clearance from the chief of local law enforcement (such as a county sheriff), a $200 excise tax , and weeks of paperwork. That was true before the assault-weapon ban was enacted in 1994, and it remains true with the expiration of the ban at midnight Sept. 13, 2004.
|