Fixed CAR stocks were the saddest thing I'd ever seen, and I've both read and watched "Where the Red Fern Grows"..
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What was it like during the AWB ('94-04)?
- Thread starter zesty
- Start date
The ban brought us $70 Glock 17 mags and $100 Glock 21 mags. The 21 was just released before the ban happened. The guns were normal retail prices. Ar's could have evil features as pre bans. AR mags were $30 each NIW and Magpul did not exist. You had Thermold if you wanted plastic. HK-91 mags were $50-60each until Tapco imported shipping containers full of them. Then they were $1 each. IN 83 I picked up a used HK-91 for under $500. My $400 Daweoo K-2 became worth strong money after the ban happened. The ban created small guns like the Glock 26 and 27 and 30 which gun banners hated. Small full sized power with 10 rounds. The federal requirements for a metal serial number plate in the Glock pistols exist because of the movie Die Hard. Elected officials took a Glock 7 as a fact. Yet they get reelected every time.
Massachusetts still has the ban in place as well. The state is a utopia of peace and freedom with no crime.
Massachusetts still has the ban in place as well. The state is a utopia of peace and freedom with no crime.
Yes, and the Democrats took a beating in the next mid-term election in '94. They lost both houses. The AWB is cited as a major reason.
I was a kid like 10-11 years old when my dad and uncle would take me to gun shows. Late 90s, early 2000s. I always remember the old Vietnam vets with the big signs out pre-ban Mags!! And they gave off this Erie vibe that you were circumventing the law and get them while you still can. It was the same with the black talon ammo. I remember guys at gun shows trying to hype up all that stuff as salesmen. “Oh hey son that’s the cop killer ammo there. You can’t get that anymore. I’ll sell you 20 rounds for $150. It’s super rare.” Take into account I was 11 or so, so I was easily impressionable.
Butler creek hot lips 25 round 10/22 mags were $100, 100 round beta c mags were $800, sks’s with non detacheable mags were $80.
Prior to the ban, bought a load of Ram-line extended 10/22 mags from Walmart for $5 a piece. Darn things sucked, had 2 or 3 that didn't last. After the ban, contacted Ram-line for replacement under their "Lifetime" warranty. Was told no replacement, only a voucher for any of their other products. Took what I had left in original packaging up to the Farmers Market gun show. Sold them for $50 a piece and walked out with a new Lew Horton Colt 1911.
And ammo was plentiful, yet normally priced. The biggest way it impacted the 2A community was it killed all the cool imports.....
That's the truth! (and sadly alot of folks on here will not have experienced "Where the red fern grows" in either form.)
I remember before it was signed, we sold Chinese SKS’s for $99, Norinco MAK-90’s for $199, and Bushmaster’s for $499. During, I sold my 5.56 Galil with mags, bipod, and bayonet for over $2k........I had less than $800 in all of it.
We had plenty of "assault weapons" available 1994-2004.
They were the "AWB compliant" versions, new in stores, not expensive either.
Pre-ban guns with the flash hiders and heat shields and bayonet lugs were somewhat more expensive, as used good condition guns being sold either at dealers or from private individuals. But they were affordable if you wanted the real deal-- not a neutered version.
As others said, the full capacity mags were the real problem for new shooters just coming of age, or just getting into firearms from the middle 1990s to the early 2000s.
These newbies could buy very deadly weapons easily enough, but they couldn't get new full-capacity magazines without paying through the nose, and eventually those new, old stock ones dried up completely. Then all you could find were used magazines from private sellers, or pawn shops, and they were also very expensive.
Too expensive to buy several of them or dozens of them like we can today.
If you wanted a 30 round magazine for your new sporterized / neutered / AWB compliant AR-15 back in the year 2000 you'd probably have to pay $100 for a good used condition 30 rounder .
So...at 100 bucks apiece how many of those would you want to keep on hand??
For less common guns, finding full capacity magazines was even worse.
I heard that Intertec 9 magazines were selling for $200 apiece,
but luckily I had two for my TeC-9. Two was enough for me.
They were the "AWB compliant" versions, new in stores, not expensive either.
Pre-ban guns with the flash hiders and heat shields and bayonet lugs were somewhat more expensive, as used good condition guns being sold either at dealers or from private individuals. But they were affordable if you wanted the real deal-- not a neutered version.
As others said, the full capacity mags were the real problem for new shooters just coming of age, or just getting into firearms from the middle 1990s to the early 2000s.
These newbies could buy very deadly weapons easily enough, but they couldn't get new full-capacity magazines without paying through the nose, and eventually those new, old stock ones dried up completely. Then all you could find were used magazines from private sellers, or pawn shops, and they were also very expensive.
Too expensive to buy several of them or dozens of them like we can today.
If you wanted a 30 round magazine for your new sporterized / neutered / AWB compliant AR-15 back in the year 2000 you'd probably have to pay $100 for a good used condition 30 rounder .
So...at 100 bucks apiece how many of those would you want to keep on hand??
For less common guns, finding full capacity magazines was even worse.
I heard that Intertec 9 magazines were selling for $200 apiece,
but luckily I had two for my TeC-9. Two was enough for me.
I turned 18 in 1996 and 21 in 1999. There is a reason my magazine stash is in the high triple digits.
