51.   Again, the bill allowed gun owners to keep any weapons -- even assault weapons -- that they now possess legally.

52.   Al Salvi wants to make assault weapons legal again.

53.   Bruno said the Senate was prepared to ban assault weapons and require that trigger locks be included in all gun sales, as Pataki proposed.

54.   Brooks wants to protect the copycat models, meaning the assault weapons that would be banned could undergo cosmetic modifications and still be allowed.

55.   But it stops short of halting the production of all semiautomatic weapons and does nothing to eliminate the thousands of assault weapons already in circulation.

56.   But now it is the prohibition on some semiautomatic rifles, commonly known as assault weapons, that is helping to drain sales, Kahn said.

57.   But television viewers have seen the destruction that even a single fanatic with an assault weapon or a bomb can do.

58.   But several witnesses testified Friday they were still alive because they owned assault weapons and large ammunition magazines that they obtained before the federal ban took effect.

59.   But the president has come out strongly in favor of banning assault weapons and their copycat models.

60.   But this ignored the long-apparent fact that so many Democrats were prepared to desert their party over the ban on assault weapons and the death penalty.