The assault weapon ban, enacted as part of the 1994 crime bill, included a ten-year "sunset" provision, so it will expire in 2004 unless Congress passes a law to postpone the sunset or to make the ban permanent. It will be interesting to see what happens, as this will be an election year issue for Bush and Congress. Bush was pretty vague about his position on this during the last campaign - his campaign position papers were carefully phrased to say that he supported the "current" assault weapons ban without saying whether he supported or opposed continuing it beyond 2004. During his confirmation hearings, Ashcroft indicated that he would support reinstating the ban - it was apparently the bone he was willing to throw to the anti-gunner Senators interrogating him, so that may be a sign that the Republicans don't intend to fight against continuation of the ban.
Thanks. I thought I had a decent working knowledge of U. S. gun laws, but you obviously know far more about this than I do.
I agree that it will be interesting to see what happens when the rule comes up for renewal.