Help a Youngster Out (First AWB)

[.223]

I apologize if this isn't in the right place, but I'm not to sure where this would fall. I was far to young at the time, and not into guns other then the ones in movies, to remember the previous AWB.

I plan on, eventually, buying an upper in a larger caliber for my AR. Financial insecurities are keeping my from doing it now, so it will have to be long after the new regime is put in place. I've read all the threads about whether there will/not be a new AWB, and that's not what this thread is about.

What was banned under the 1994 AWB? Was it anything that had to do with the assault rifle? Or was it just the lowers and actual FCG's? I plan on getting the upper without the 'evil' features (bayo lug, flash hider, etc). If the new AWB mirrored the old one, would I be able to get the uppers and other parts? Or am I 'stuck' with what I got?

Thanks,
Chris

[skyugo]

it's hard to say what a new ban will bring...

as a minimum i'd get a lower and some standard capacity mags. there's really no way to prove when a lower was built up into a complete firearm.

[Mark-VA]

Realizing that this is all speculation until a new AWB is actually passed AND I am not a lawyer, here's something that *might* be useful in the event of a future ban. Before a new ban passes, buy sufficient parts to assemble a lower and borrow an upper with the usual evil features from someone, then put them together, creating, for at least some period of time, a pre-ban Evil Assault Weapon (TM). Document its existence with some photos and record the date. Five minutes of evilness will be more than sufficient for our purposes. I think an upper with a flash hider and bayonet lug, plus a lower with a pistol grip, collapsible stock and a 30-rd magazine should provide plenty of evilness.

The rationale is that previously, guns that had existed in a banned configuration prior to the ban were still legal under/after the ban. Since the act of assembling the lower and borrowed upper created an EAW prior to the ban, it retained its permissible evilness afterwards, including changing the configuration. The lower is the serialized part of the gun and what becomes evil when assembled, so borrow the upper if you're short on cash. Is doing this somewhat silly? Yes, but no sillier than "rifle" lowers vs. "pistol" lowers, and failing to play that game properly can result in prison sentences.

Of course, we can hope that we manage to fight off passage of AWB II in the first place, and it's possible that a sequel might not grandfather in existing weapons or have some other rules that make this exercise pointless, but you never know and it can't hurt.

I will say that based on my reading of the original ban, if an individual owned a complete evil upper and lower prior to the ban and assembled them before the ban took effect, the gun was still legal post-ban. If he owned the parts prior to the ban, but never assembled them until after it took effect, he had committed a crime by manufacturing a post-ban assault weapon. Something very difficult to prove, but a crime just the same. Date of assembly was the key point, not date of ownership nor the configuration at the time the AWB took effect.

Again, I am not a lawyer and the details will certainly depend how any future ban is written.