Phrasing

I don't care for how some things are phrased.

"Reinstating the Assault Weapon Ban."  It makes me feel like they are saying it is still the law, but there's a pause or hold placed on it we need to remove.  The AWB is expired.  It is no longer the law.  The phrase that is more apt is, "Pass a new law, identical to the expired AWB."  I would  oppose that bill too.

The AWB fell squarely into the category of "law that did nothing but infringe on my rights."  I am never selling my raggedy M16 magazines because I spent $30 a piece for them.  I can get two brand new USGI magazines for that price now.  I didn't buy those mags at the peak price either.

Section 922r is another onerous piece of useless law.  If more than 10 items on an arbitrary list of 20 parts of a firearm are made outside the USA, it's an illegal "imported assault weapon".  If 10 or fewer parts are imported, it's just another hum-drum semi-automatic rifle.  This really only affects two models of firearm, AK clones and FALs.

I don't recall the specific timeline for it, but semi-auto clones of military assault and battle rifles were banned from import.

That led to a brisk business in disassembling (foreign) AK and FAL rifles from surplus and selling all but the receiver to Americans.  The buyer then took that "parts kit" and assembled it on an American made semi-automatic receiver (the numbered part that ATF considers to be the firearm) with whatever parts substitutions to ensure the new rifle was, indeed, a semi-auto and not a new machine-gun.  A real live loop-hole!  As long as I didn't import the GUN part, I was not importing a GUN.

922r was passed to put an end to this.  You needed a set number of US made parts in your new rifle or it was considered to be an imported gun and thus illegal.  It did not take too long for entrepreneurs to begin making the requisite number of parts to comply with 922r.

Damn those gunnies for obeying the law AND getting the guns we're trying to ban! [twirl mustache]

The next step was to ban the import of the barrels with the parts kits.  I notice that the barrel is on the 922r list too.  They have essentially made it easier to comply with 922r by forcing the use of a domestic barrel.  While barrels are an expensive part, they are something that is readily made by existing companies.  The only real effect this is having is to make FAL's based on kits more expensive and moving the manufacture of AK clones from the garage to a factory.

Today there ARE many fewer AK and FAL's being made than before the AWB, but not fewer "assault weapons".  The numerous variations of the AR-15 and its very affordable price have done more to eliminate the AK sales than anything the government has cooked up.  Especially so since a semi-auto AK has zero advantages over a semi-auto AR-15 (assuming equivalent build quality).  An FAL clone only has one advantage over an AR, 7.62x51mm over 5.56x45mm (and that's not always an advantage depending on the situation).