<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, which included a prohibition on the manufacture for civilian use of certain semi-automatic firearms that were defined as assault weapons as well as certain ammunition magazines that were defined as "large capacity ." </P> <P> The 10 - year ban was passed by the US Congress on September 13, 1994, following a close 52--48 vote in the US Senate, and was signed into law by US President Bill Clinton on the same day . The ban applied only to weapons manufactured after the date of the ban's enactment . 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 the courts . There were multiple attempts to renew the ban, but none succeeded . </P>

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