The First “Assault Weapon”: Banning Guns Based on “Style” Rather than Function0

• Prohibition of Arms, Uncategorized
• March 5, 2018

Originally published on Reason.com When five schoolchildren were murdered at an elementary school in Stockton, California, in January 1989, the public learned a new phrase: “assault weapon.” To most gun owners and non-owners alike, it was a brand new term. It was also confusing. Whenever “assault weapon” laws have been enacted, they apply to guns that