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Key Facts
- Federal level: The ABA’s 2013 Washington Letter said the organization supported gun-violence legislation, including an assault weapons ban, in a March 6 letter from President Laurel G. Bellows.
- Federal level: Congress.gov lists S.150, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013, and shows hearings, committee action, and Senate calendar placement in 2013.
- Federal level: The recovered item is historical and does not by itself establish current federal law.
- National overview: ATF says regulatory enforcement supports compliance with applicable federal, state, and local firearm laws.
- State level: No state-specific source was gathered for this recovery, so the article does not summarize any particular state rule.
- National overview: The current ATF firearms page was last updated in May 2026, so any modern context tied to that page should be read as current to that review.
- Federal level: The source set here is narrow and stays close to the archive record, Congress.gov, and the current ATF firearms page.
- State level: This archive recovery does not expand into a 50-state survey of firearm restrictions.
Last reviewed: May 2026. Legal rules, forms, deadlines, and procedures can change by jurisdiction, agency, and court system.
A recovered ABA archive item about assault weapons legislation
This archive recovery focuses on a 2013 ABA item tied to gun-violence legislation and an assault-weapons proposal in the 113th Congress. The historical value of the page comes from what it shows about ABA policy and congressional movement in early 2013, not from any claim that the proposal became current federal law.
The Sources set for this recovery is intentionally narrow. It stays close to the archival ABA text that was available, the official Congress.gov action history for S.150, and a current ATF firearms page for only limited modern context.
Why the article uses neutral wording
The accessible ABA text and Congress.gov record use assault-weapons-ban wording, while the target slug and legacy title use Assault Weapons Regulatory Act of 2013. Because the exact archived page text was not retrievable in this run, the recovered article uses neutral wording such as the 2013 ABA assault-weapons endorsement rather than treating the legacy slug as independently verified.
That approach keeps the historical frame intact and avoids turning a recovery piece into a claim about exact archive wording that was not available in the source text.
| Source | What it shows | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| ABA Washington Letter article | The ABA supported gun-violence legislation, including an assault weapons ban, in a March 6 letter from President Laurel G. Bellows. | This identifies the ABA policy position that made the archive item notable. |
| Congress.gov action history for S.150 | S.150 was read twice, referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, had hearings, and was reported with amendments favorably in 2013. | This places the ABA item in a specific congressional timeline. |
| ATF firearms page | ATF describes its enforcement focus and says regulatory enforcement supports compliance with federal, state, and local firearm laws. | This gives only a limited current-law backdrop and does not supply a full assault-weapons rule. |
What Congress.gov shows about S.150
Congress.gov lists S.150, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013, as read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary on January 24, 2013. The action history also shows hearings on February 27, 2013, committee action in March, and reporting with amendments favorably on March 14, 2013.
That chronology matters because it shows the proposal moving through the legislative process in 2013. It does not, by itself, show that the proposal became enacted federal law.
How the current ATF page fits into the picture
The current ATF firearms page is a general agency page. It says ATF focuses its enforcement efforts on unlawful firearm use and states that regulatory enforcement supports compliance with applicable federal, state, and local firearm laws.
That source gives the article a current federal context, but it does not supply a detailed assault-weapons definition or a current federal ban statement in this source set. For that reason, the historical discussion remains brief and source-neutral on modern law.
Why this archive item still matters
The recovered page helps place a 2013 ABA policy position inside a specific moment in federal gun-violence debate. It shows how a major legal organization framed an assault-weapons proposal at the time, and it also shows the difference between a policy endorsement, a bill’s committee history, and current law.
That distinction is the main reason archive recovery pages matter. They preserve the record of what a source said then, without overstating what the law says now.
Related ABA archive context
This page sits naturally beside other ABA history pieces in The First File archive, including an earlier ABA firearms-policy item and a 2008 ABA gun-control statement. Those pages help show a broader ABA policy sequence rather than a single isolated post.
The recovered record here is best read as legal information and historical context, not as a current news item.
