<Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB)--officially, the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act--is a subsection of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, a United States federal law that included a prohibition on the manufacture for civilian use of certain semi-automatic firearms it defined as assault weapons, as well as certain ammunition magazines it defined as "large capacity". </P> <P> The ten - year ban was passed by the U.S. Congress on September 13, 1994, following a close 52--48 vote in the Senate, and signed into law by then President Bill Clinton the same day . The ban only applied to weapons manufactured after the date of the ban's enactment, and it expired on September 13, 2004, in accordance with its sunset provision . </P> <P> Several constitutional challenges were filed against provisions of the ban, but all were rejected by reviewing courts . There were multiple attempts to renew the ban, but none succeeded . </P>

When were assault rifles banned in the us