Impacts of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban: 1994–96 (Research in Brief)

A number of factors—including the fact that the banned weapons and magazines were rarely used to commit murders in this country, the limited availability of data on the weapons, other components of the Crime Control Act of 1994, and State and local initiatives implemented at the same time—posed challenges in discerning the effects of the ban. The ban appears to have had clear short-term effects on the gun market, some of which were unintended consequences: production of the banned weapons increased before the law took effect, and prices fell afterward. This suggests that the weapons became more available generally, but they must have become less accessible to criminals because there was at least a short-term decrease in criminal use of the banned weapons.