Following an increase in mass shootings, US President Joe Biden stated that the country needs more resources to fight gun crime and that it is past time to re-ban assault weapons in February and tweeted “Ban assault weapons – it’s beyond time,” on April 19.

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Ever since the tweet, “Ban Biden,” has been trending on social media.

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“10 years ago the ban was law, mass shootings went down,” Joe Biden said in his first big speech to a divided Congress, “after Republicans won control of the House of Representatives. Mass shootings soared after Republicans allowed it to expire. Let us finish the job and reinstate the prohibition on assault weapons,” he added.

In his statement, Biden referred to the 1994 statute that imposed a 10-year ban on the production, transfer, and ownership of “semiautomatic assault weapons” (SAWs) and “large capacity ammunition feeding devices.” The formal end date was September 13, 2004.

In the wake of several mass shootings this year, Biden has reaffirmed his demand for a ban on “assault weapons,” a word he and other Democrats have used largely to refer to the AR-15.

Biden’s call for a firearms ban has proven divisive.

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The 1994 law contained particular make and model of the weapons it intended to outlaw, which included the Colt AR-15 among others, as well as other specifications for what constituted as a “semiautomatic assault weapons.” This is a bone of dispute between the 1994 law and current efforts.

A semiautomatic assault weapon (SAW) was defined as a rifle that could accept a detachable magazine and also had at least two of the following features: “(1) a folding/telescoping stock; (2) a protruding pistol grip; (3) a bayonet mount; (4) a muzzle flash suppressor or threaded barrel capable of accepting such a device; or (5) a grenade launcher.”

Similar classifications were used to pistols and shotguns in the 1994 prohibition. Federal courts upheld the law.