Impacts of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban: 1994-96

The NIJ Research in Brief, Impacts of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban: 1994-96, examines the short-term impact of the assault weapons ban on gun markets and gun-related violence, as contained in Title XI of the Federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Research showed that production and prices for the banned weapons rose prior to the law's implementation, followed by a substantial postban drop in prices. Also, criminal use of the guns declined after the ban went into effect, which suggested that the legal stock of preban assault weapons was, at least temporarily, largely in the hands of collectors and dealers.