Here is some data I'd like to know:

[Purrfessor]

Since the assault weapons ban was allowed to lapse in 2004, how many mass-murder victims killed by semi-automatic fire were people who supported the right to own such weapons?

And how about a policy requiring semi-automatic weapons supporters to give up something in order to own these weapons? Forget taxing them, that is too easy and not very painful. Why not enter all their names into a database, and for every innocent person murdered by a semi-automatic weapon, an equal number of names are drawn from the database and these people are placed before a firing squad of their peers (fellow semi-automatic weapons supporters) and shot dead?

Call it a sacrifice to the god they so adamantly worship, the NRA.

Let's see how many of them are willing to put their lives on the line for their beliefs.

[Recursion]

1. The AWB was not a ban on semi-automatic weapons

It was a regulation of what they could legally look like. As an example, the rifle Lanza used in Sandy Hook was legal under the 1994 Federal AWB, and to make it legal under Feinstein's current proposal it would have to have a differently-shaped grip and a different brand name.

[guardian]

2. A better measure

would be the difference of the average of "mass-murder victims killed by semi-automatic fire" during the time period of the AWB and post AWB. That is because during the period of the AWB the number was not zero.

[davidn3600]

3. It doesn't matter what the law is because a gun can easily be re-designed to slip through

The 1994 Assault Weapons Ban would not have stopped a single mass shooting. That's a fact. Every one of these guns were legal under that ban.

[Scuba]

4. Crazy talk doesn't help.

[Purrfessor]

5. OK then...let's just adopt one of the NRA's dream scenarios and,...

since we can't ban assault weapons because it is too complex to be within the reach on mankind, at least here in the US, mandate that every American over the age of, what?, eighteen?, twenty-one?, be legally required to carry a firearm at all times. Or would this fall under the category of crazy talk? I doubt the NRA would think so.

[Angry Dragon]

6. the NRA would only support it if it only applied to white people

because they are the only good guys and gals