Police officers were five times more likely to be killed with an assault weapon during the 1994 assault weapons ban (AWB) than they were in the two years before the ban.
No police officers were killed with assault weapons in 1992. Four died in 1993, after the gun-control lobby started telling people that assault weapons were the best way to kill police officers. ( source: "Impact Evaluation of the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act of 1994", Urban Institute, 13 March 1997, section 6.4.1, available online at http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?NavMenuID=24&template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=6178e )
According to the Violence Policy Center "one in five (41 of 211) law enforcement officers slain in the line of duty between January 1, 1998, and December 31, 2001, were killed with assault weapons." That's ten per year, which is five times higher than before the ban. (source: http://www.banassaultweapons.org/ then press the "Learn More About This Issue" button.)
In other words, the law is worse than useless.
Criminals used to use handguns to shoot police. Bullet-proof vests are designed to block handgun bullets. The gun-control lobby told criminals, and everyone else, that assault weapons were especially deadly to cops. Criminals responded by switching from handguns to military-style rifles. Rifle bullets, no matter whether they are from military rifles or hunting rifles, are more likely to penetrate bullet-proof vests.
The gun control lobby's top priority is to renew a law that doesn't work. As part of the process, they will continue to teach criminals that rifles work better than handguns to kill law enforcement officers. Should gun-control lobbyists be allowed to exploit a problem that they created?