There was no legal definition of "assault weapons" in the U.S. prior to the law's enactment. The 10-year ban was passed by Congress on September 13, 1994, and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton the same day. The ban only applied to weapons manufactured after the date of the ban's enactment.
The Federal Assault Weapons Ban expired on September 13, 2004, as part of the law's sunset provision. There have been multiple attempts to renew the ban,[1] but no bill has reached the floor for a vote.
Assault weapon refers primarily (but not exclusively) to firearms that had been developed from earlier fully automatic firearms.
This is historical material “frozen in time”. The website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.
