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Ex post facto, literally means "enacted after the fact". In other words, what is legal today, can't be legislated illegal tomorrow. Your AR15, and its 30 round magazines which are legal today, can't be taken away from you tomorrow, just because Congress passes a law. They would only become illegal if manufactured after the law went into effect. There are a lot of AR-15's out there manufactured prior to 1994, the last time Congress passed a restrictive gun law. Those guns were legal to own after the law went into effect. Colt, for example, just couldn't manufacture AR-15's with flash suppressors after the law was passed in 1994.
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I'm pretty sure
ex post facto doesn't apply here, other than protecting those that
owned the items prior to a ban from prosecution (obviously). But I don't think it covers their continued ownership, as a ban on ownership and accompanying requirement to get rid of the offending property doesn't qualify as an actual judicial punishment.
Are you sure the previous AWB didn't grandfather in the old weapons out of political expediency, rather than Constitutional necessity?