Black rifles prior to 1994

[sequins]

I'm on the younger side and was a little kid in 94 and didnt really have a lot of political awareness.

Coming up in the post 9/11 era, with multiple attackers, and civil unrest and tyrannical government around every corner I want an AR and at least 10 standard capacity magazines.

It's an arms race and I might not be interested in black guns otherwise, but the genie I'd never going back in the bottle.

 

[Dan Forrester]

I became interested in them the day the AWB passed. I remember a WSVN 7 in Ft. Lauderdale ran a “special report” where they went to a range and fired the guns that you would no longer be able to get starting tomorrow. I was in my early teens and remember thinking to myself that if we can no longer get those then I wanted one!

I also remember those unmarked ar15 magazines jmr40 was talking about. The thought just occurred to me as I read his post that those were probably new manufacture coming from China or something but we’re simply unmarked. Who was to say when they were made.

I also remember people beginning to ignore the law in the last few years. People were selling LEO only marked mags all over the place. I didn’t touch them but plenty of people didn’t seem to care.

I think the 89 import ban is often forgotten about too. There must be hundreds of small shops cranking out ar15 and ar10 lowers and uppers these days. That ban on imports encouraged all the small manufacturers we see today. Without that ban I doubt even a small fraction of them would exist.

When you combine the 89 import ban along with how far CNC milling has come and 94 AWB and the government has created the perfect storm.

Dan

 

[Flechette]

IMO it started in 1992 when a FBI sniper shot and killed a unarmed mother holding a baby while standing the doorway of her cabin followed by the siege and mass murder of over 70 men, women and children by the FBI and BATF in 1993. The gun ban passed in 1994 made many Americans feel the Federal Government had declared war on them. These events along with the Clinton Administration headed by Janet Reno and the BATF conducting inspections and revoking the licenses of FFL dealers across the country has created a level of mistrust in the Federal Government that still exists today.

The Federal Government covered up many of the facts surrounding these incidents and went on to promote many of the agents involved. Today thanks to the Internet abuse of power by Government agents is becoming easier to learn about.

Scary times. Things came very close to going hot, and many outside of the gun culture were completely unaware.

 

[armoredman]

Aggrvaiting article out of NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/opinion/assault-rifle-ban.html
Read I'd you want to, but its "blah blah blah gun owners are racist zealots blah blah no one needs an "assult weapon" blah blah blah 2A is bad for America.
Ok, but here's the deal. High capacity, intermediate caliber, semiautomatic rifles were not widely sought after until the government decided to ban them in 1994. Sure, you certainly had Ar15s Ak47s SKS...and horror of horrors...the M1 Carbine, what with its bayonet lug and 30 round magazines, which incidentally, were US government surplus, weapons that had been used in war(s)....literally weapons of war... sold to the US citizens...... by the government. But I digress. But please correct me if I'm wrong, but the AR15 didn't have nearly the cache it had by 2005 prior to the 94 ban.
That's what I'd like to know, how many of us here owned an AR, or AK or their variants prior to '94, and I mean prior to knowing the ban was coming. I remember my dad buying 2 SKS's right before the ban took effect. But prior to that, they weren't really high on the priority list.

My first EBR was a Mini-14, sometime about 1984 IIRC. I think I had my first AK sometime in the late 80s. I bought an UZI in 1989, and sold it after the ban went down for a ton of cash. Bought it in California, too, San Francisco, if you can believe it.
I actually did not get into ARs until last year - I fired an M16A1 at Ft Huachuca with ROTC and hated that SPRRROOIINNGG in my ear. So I didn't touch an AR until I was kinda pushed in to it - love 'em now.

 

[P5 Guy]

My 1st self loading centerfire rifle was a Mini30.

 

[Browning]

Actually ran across a picture from 1994 with my FAL. Made me think of this thread. Oddly enough I bought it in West Covina California with 9 twenty rd mags. Try that now.