President Clinton's action Monday to ban the importation of 58 types of assault-style rifles means that as many as 1.6 million of these murderous weapons will not enter the United States this year and countless others will be barred in future years, assuming the ban survives expected challenges in Congress or the courts. Regardless of what the National Rifle Assn. may claim, this step means lives will be saved. The president made permanent a suspension ordered last... (GunPolicy.org)

LOS ANGELES — Growing up as an Army brat in the 1950's and 60's, I could have been a poster boy for the National Rifle Association. When I was 12, I started competing in N.R.A.-sponsored shooting contests every Saturday morning. When I was 13, I was given my first single-shot 16-gauge shotgun as a Christmas present and started going hunting with my father and brother in the forests surrounding the Army posts and small rural towns where we lived. At 18, I went to West... (GunPolicy.org)

When President Clinton signed an "assault weapons" ban into law in 1994, critics said he was making a distinction based on politics rather than firepower. Real assault weapons — machine guns — had been severely restricted for decades. The weapons on Mr. Clinton's list simply looked bad because they had nasty but cosmetic features such as bayonet lugs. Meanwhile, guns that lacked the nasty features — but had the same rate of fire and the same firepower — remained... (GunPolicy.org)