Hi MPD239,
First, let me welcome you to THR. I know things are a little heated on this discussion, but that really just indicates that there are a lot of people who feel passionately about the issue. And, while tempers may fly around here sometimes, I asure you that we are generally a very friendly group.
On to the topic at hand:
The AWB really accomplished next to nothing. I suspect that it was designed not to control crime, but rather to aggitate the public and instill fear and loathing in the general populace. The weapons that were banned are no more deadly than any number of weapons manufactured after the ban.
The use of so-called assault weapons in crime has largely been fictionalized. The data is bogus. While these weapons have been used before, they are far, far less likely to be used than non-banned weapons, namely handguns.
As far as the weapons being easily converted to fire fully automatic, I asure you that this is not the case. Most of these weapons have actions that would be very difficult to modify. That is not to say that it couldn't be done, but rather that it would be very costly to do so, and would require specific technical expertise. Bolts would have to be remachined, trigger groups would have to be redesigned / remanufactured, gas cylinders would ne to be adjusted, metal stampings would need to be manually reformed, etc. etc. The cost would be prohibitively high, and should anything go wrong, the device will be so much scrap. Modifying a weapon for fully automatic fire is not necessarily as easy as buying a cheap conversion kit, it requires engineering talent the majority of the population does not possess.
The resistance to finger prints thing seems fairly irresponsible, and I hate to see people market products making these kinds of claims, but there is an explanation to it as well. Oils on your skin are about the most harmful possible thing to the finish (blued or otherwise) of any steel firearm component. The acids in the oils will aggressively corrode the finish, leaving it looking utterly awful. For this reason, a great many people prefer non-polished finishes like bead blast finishes, brushed finished, polymer coatings, etc. They generally don't stain as badly, and if they do stain, they generally don't show it to badly. Of course, some people go for stainless, but there is usually a significant price differential.
Remeber, too, that most military styled devices are a product of form following function. From an engineering standpoint, most so-called-assault-weapons are masterpieces. They are extremely efficient and reliable. They work, plain and simple, and they work in the most extreme conditions. They have to. And this is one of the reaons that many gun owners like the civilian versions of the military weapons. They often have the same tendency toward reliability. If you look through these forums, you will sometimes find a report of a device that would not fire, misloaded, didn't extract a spent cartridge, or suffered some material or mechanical breakdown. Generally, these posts are accompanied by swears, complaints, advice not to purchace similar devices, and so on. Most gun owners do not like their weapons to fail. For this reason, many of us are drawn to these military-styled weapons. Their primary quality is reliability.
You can't really argue crime statistics based soley on guns. There are a lot of other, far more significant factors, such as population density, local economic conditions, age, race (although studies tend to gloss that one over), geography, etc. etc. Personally, I suspect population density and economic conditions are primarily responsible for most violent crime. Removing some weapons aren't going to reduce crime, because they were never the source of the problem.
