That Assault Weapons Ban of 1994

It was too late, then, to really ban what they called Assault Weapons.  And in fact, they didn't, as we all know.  And all the law did was jack up demand even further, and proliferate ownership by an order of magnitude.

Grandfathered items, an expiration date, no confiscation or turn-ins.

Now, 25 years later, the toothpaste is well and truly out of the tube.

Draconian ban, then, might have had a chance and worked.  AR15s might be as rare as hens teeth and mini-Uzis are today if the gun banners had truly succeeded.  So much so that a n00b like me would not have even missed having them.  I'd have a bolt action hunting rifle and handguns and be fighting over keeping them in the political arena. 

Diane Feinstein had part of a chance back in 1994.  She is truly tilting at windmills now to think a revisited ban is even possible.  There was too many people saying no then for a legislation to be effective, there is certainly too many people now, today, saying no. 

She and her allies are delusional on this.

And that's a good thing.  She has a MUCH bigger task to do infringe on our rights.  She has to spend generations changing the culture. A significant seismic shift, that.

It might have been a mistake to shift from handgun bans to 'assault weapon' bans by the gun controllers back in the 80s.  I think they saw assault weapons as possible, as too many people already had a handgun and were resisting handgun bans.  Their strategy clearly backfired, and now they can get neither.   

Thank you, gunnie culture of 30 years ago for succeeding in this fight.  We are now standing on the foundation you sweated over and toiled on.   With fewer allies on your side you beat back handgun bans then made assault weapon bans untenable.  All pretty much before I could even vote.

They tried to get the easy-ball rolling, going after the GUNS, then ended up losing CONTROL.