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8 N.Y.U. J. Legis. & Pub. Pol'y 471 (2004-2005)
Much Ado about Not Very Much: The Expiration of the Assault Weapons Ban as an Act of Legislative Responsibility

handle is hein.journals/nyulpp8 and id is 477 raw text is: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOT VERY MUCH: THE EXPIRATION OF THE ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN AS AN ACT OF LEGISLATIVE RESPONSIBILITY Clark A. Wohlferd* INTRODUCTION Few issues evoke such passionate public and political support as assault weapons bans.' Polls show public approval for banning such weapons at sixty-eight percent.2 Both 2004 presidential candidates fa- vored renewing the existing Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB).3 The Senate voted in March 2004 to renew the ban.4 Yet Congress allowed the AWB to expire in September 2004.5 The conventional account calls the ban's expiration a failure of election-year politics.6 This article, however, offers a different perspective: the expiration of the AWB was due not to mere congressional ineptitude, but rather to responsible legislative inaction. The AWB was a flawed law that * Candidate for J.D., 2006, New York University School of Law; B.A., Ma- calester College, 2003. 1. Throughout this article the term assault weapons is confined to the definition used in the Federal Assault Weapons Ban. 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(30) (2000) (repealed 2004). 2. Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Effort to Renew Weapons Ban Falters on Hill: Democrats Fault Bush for Lack of Action, N.Y. TIMES, Sept. 9, 2004, at AI (noting study re- leased that week by Annenberg Public Policy Center of University of Pennsylvania). 3. See Transcript of Debate Between Bush and Kerry, With Domestic Policy the Topic, N.Y. TIMES, Oct. 14, 2004, at A22. But see Jodi Wilgoren, In Magazine Inter- view, Kerry Says He Owns Assault Rifle, N.Y. TIMES, Sept. 26, 2004, at A33 (quoting Senator John Kerry stating he kept Chinese assault rifle as reminder of his military service). 4. A renewal of the AWB passed 52-47 as an amendment to a bill shielding gun manufacturers from lawsuits (along with amendment to close gun-show loophole). However, the bill itself was defeated 90-8 after the NRA and White House withdrew support when the amendments were attached; Republicans called the amendments poison pills. See Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Senate Leaders Scuttle Gun Bill Over Changes, N.Y. TIMES, Mar. 3, 2004, at Al. 5. The ban expired on September 13, 2004. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 921-922 (2000). 6. Stolberg, supra note 2 (noting that although President Bush supported its re- newal, he refused to push Congress to reauthorize AWB, perhaps because he needed NRA endorsement for 2004 reelection, which NRA withheld until sunset of AWB). 471 Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. Journal of Legislation and Public Policy

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