Buried in an omnibus crime bill was a controversial amendment that narrowly passed Congress and changed American gun policy and culture for decades. 

On Sept. 13, 1994, H.R.3355, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, became public law. Signed by President Bill Clinton (D), the elephantine 356-page bill was a mash-up of pork, prison, penalties, and programs of the sort commonly crafted on Capitol Hill. 

While the final version managed an easy 61-38 Senate conference report vote after winding through Congress for 10 months, its most contentious section was easily an amendment by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to stop the sale and manufacture of "assault weapons" as defined through an arbitrary process of cosmetic features and the ability to accept a detachable magazine, as well as magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds.

Then U.S. Rep. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was the House's champion for the amendment – and it only managed to make it into the bill by very slim margins. 

The sponsor of H.R.3355, U.S. Rep. Jack Brooks (D-TX), attempted to remove Feinstein's amendment from his bill, and indeed it was watered down to a degree, but ultimately, it squeaked through on a 56-43 Senate roll call that included U.S. Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.). However, it only did so after a motion to table the amendment failed 51-49. The House version passed 216-214 in May 1994. Had a single lawmaker changed their vote in either case, the AWB would have never passed. 

It was a political win for Clinton that had its way paved by the media and some surprise advocates. Polls backed by Time Magazine and CNN held that voters favored the concept of stronger gun laws at the time. Even former Republican Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan – the latter of which signed a similar omnibus crime bill in 1986 that contained the Hughes Amendment, banning new commercial machine gun production – publicly supported the ban.

Did it really 'Ban' Anything? 

The law only had a prohibition on the production and sale of new guns on the commercial market, grandfathering firearms already in circulation. 

In a silver lining to the AWB's text, it listed gun models by name (e.g. Colt AR-15, Steyr AUG) and, as a secondary attempt to stamp out production, listed cosmetic traits (a folding or telescoping stock;  a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon; a bayonet mount; a flash suppressor or threaded barrel designed to accommodate a flash suppressor; or a grenade launcher). 

Within days of the ban becoming law, innovative gun makers simply deleted enough features and renamed their offerings. 

For instance, this saw the Springfield Armory SAR-3, which was a budget HK91clone built on Greek machinery and imported pre-1994, marketed as the SAR-8 post-1994 with the addition of a thumbhole stock, non-threaded barrel, and 10-round magazine. 

Other makers set to refocus the market. For instance, Glock pioneered its revolutionary subcompact series of handguns – the 9mm G26, .40 cal G27, and 10mm G29 – during the ban which was downsized as small as possible but still featured 10-round mags. The concept of being limited to a 10-round mag in a more full-sized G17 or compact G19 suddenly made these "Baby Glocks" a popular, and much more concealable, alternative. 

Expired After 10 Years

Further, once the ban expired 20 years ago this month on Sept. 13, 2004, one of the biggest effects of the AWB soon kicked in as millions of gun owners and potential gun owners who had spent a decade unable to buy "wicked black rifles" reached out to pick one up for their collection. Demand skyrocketed. The cyclical human tendency to seek out that which is forbidden, in turn makes such banned things even more popular. 

This was undoubtedly exacerbated by the fact that the backers of the 1994 ban – Clinton, Biden, Schumer, and Feinstein –consistently called for it to be resurrected, thus sparking the need to “get one before they are outlawed again.” 

In 1993, only a handful of companies were in the AR business. Today there are hundreds of AR manufacturers of all sizes and a lot of big names that never produced consumer ARs have entered the market including Ruger, Savage, Smith & Wesson, and Wilson Combat. 

According to data from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, there are over 28 million rifles of the type that would have been banned under the AWB in circulation. During debate on the AWB in August 1994 on the eve of its passage, lawmakers cited the estimates of such guns in circulation ranged between 1 and 2 million. 

Had there never been a ban, it could be argued the AR and its cousins may not have become the most popular rifle in the country today. 

Did the Ban Accomplish Anything?

While the AWB was law, a congressionally mandated study looked at the effects of its first 30 months and found it had no impact on crime, with a follow-up study in 2004 found that, "Should it be renewed, the ban’s effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement. AWs were rarely used in gun crimes even before the ban."

A 2018 study of the decade of federal gun banning concluded that there was no evidence such bans affect mass shootings.

Those who believe the AWB successfully traded liberty for safety should consider the ban's last three years (2001, 2002, and 2003) saw an FBI-compiled homicide rate in the United States of about 5.6 per 100,000 people. By 2014, a decade after it expired, with the guns circulating in greater numbers than ever, it had dropped to 4.1 percent. 

Move to bring it back

Still, the concept of bringing the ban back has endured as a staple of the Democratic party's bedrock issues since 2004. A proposed Federal Assault Weapon Ban is currently in the Senate (S.25) and House (H.R.698) with 48 and 208 co-sponsors, respectively – of which none are Republican. Likewise, both the official DNC Party Platform and the Harris-Walz Platform seek a return to the days of "featureless" stocks and 10-round magazines, for starters. 

Further, the boss of the supposedly non-partisan firearm regulatory agency, Seven Dettelbach, recently took the unprecedented step of calling for the adoption of an AWB, a move no sitting ATF director has done before.

And that's why the twin dates Sept. 13, 1994, and Sept. 13, 2004, mean quite different things to both sides of the gun conversation in America.