Civilian-owned Firearms in T2k

[Tegyrius]

The T2k universe, at least in 1e, seems to postulate an America of the 1990s that was the violent, dystopian future of the 1980s. The 1e Small Arms Guide has some allusions to law enforcement agencies making more extensive use of SMGs, and the M16EZ was a late-war "parts kit" upgrade for local militias and law enforcement when the competing governments ran out of spare M16s to hand out. A couple of the 1e modules set in the US assume a high level of prewar gang activity in major cities.

Based on this and on the '80s general assumption that the '90s would see a continued increase in drug- and gang-related violence, I think the T2k universe probably saw a Firearm Owners Protection Act of '86 that lacked the Hughes Amendment. I also see self-defense advocates quashing any attempt to pass T2ks equivalent of the real-world Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act or the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Act of 1994 (the "assault weapons ban"). For those who don't spend a lot of time cursing at gun control legislation, the net effect of those changes is:

• Legal full-auto weapons still required federal registration and a $200 tax stamp to be legal, but importation didn't stop after 1986, resulting in the relatively small number of such weapons being incrementally larger. Virtually anything can be justified as the former toy of a wealthy or well-connected collector.
• The real-world expansion of concealed carry licensing occured sooner in the T2k universe. The practical effects in 2000 are a greater number of survivors who were accustomed to carrying weapons for defensive use before the war and greater sales (if not general public acceptance) of handguns in the prewar years.
• Standard-capacity magazines were more available before the war than they were in the real-world late '90s.
• Although American law enforcement hadn't moved to the "patrol rifle" concept by the war's outbreak, it was leaning in that direction. Police departments were faster to embrace semi-automatic sidearms, with submachine guns and pistol-caliber carbines augmenting the traditional shotguns in cruisers.

Illegal importation of military armament would also be higher in the T2k universe's prewar years for three reasons. The first is drug cartels and their local subsidiaries and franchises. The second is New America and similar movements. Finally, we have the survivalist movement, decentralized but generally intent on preparing for total societal collapse.

- C.