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57 Gonz. L. Rev. 515 (2021-2022)
What Is an Assault Weapon? Definitions, Attributes, and Implications regarding Legislation

handle is hein.journals/gonlr57 and id is 547 raw text is: WHAT IS AN ASSAULT WEAPON? DEFINITIONS, ATTRIBUTES, AND IMPLICATIONS REGARDING LEGISLATION Wm. Alan Bartley* & Geoffrey Fain Williams** ABSTRACT Many legislative sessions and court arguments have examined the constitutionality of restrictions or bans on specific firearms or attributes, including assault weapons. These legal debates justifiably focus on the specific legislative language, intent, and precedent applicable to the discussion. Few of these legal debates focus on the practical implications these firearms laws and adjudications have on the types and choices offirearms available-or not available-to consumers and citizens. This research focuses on the general contours of the legal concept of assault weapons and presents a quantitative analysis of the impacts of assault weapons bans, and not on the constitutionality of the laws themselves. Looking at various definitions of an assault weapon in four proposed or enacted federal and state bans, we test which small arms currently available to American consumers would fit the various legislative criteria of assault weapon and thus be banned from new purchase by consumers. Of 199 models of centerfire rifles with semi-automatic firing advertised in a 2019 mass market gun magazine, we find roughly 70-85% would meet the ban criteria. In contrast, at most 15% of the currently available semi-automatic shotguns and only 1.5% of semi-automatic pistols would meet ban criteria. As a percentage of all rifles, shotguns, and handguns currently available, the banned firearms percentages would be approximately 20%, 5%, and 1% respectively. The legal profession should better understand this effect on consumer choice offirearms availability to gauge its intent in assault weapon bans versus its practical impact. We also analyze the frequency with which legislatively designated assault weapons traits appear among those weapons that meet ban criteria, and use * Professor of Economics at Transylvania University, Lexington Kentucky 40508. abartley@transy.edu. ** Associate Professor of Economics at Transylvania University, Lexington Kentucky 40508. gwilliams@transy.edu. 515

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