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Back in the late 1980s, California came up with the concept of an "assault weapon ban" based on the appearance of a firearm. At the time, there were a couple of highly publicized shootings, one using an Uzi carbine and one using an AK-47. The Democrats actually sent out memos to CA LEO agencies seeking statistics on these types of guns being used in crimes. Unfortunately for them, the stats showed actual crime use to be less than 1/2 of 1 percent. They were not detered however.

Soon after, it caught on at the federal level, although it took until 1994 to pass. One of the "features" being viewed as making an assault weapon was having a detachable magazine.

At that time, one of the guns being looked at was the Ruger Mini-14 because of its ability to take 20-30-40 round magazines. Bill Ruger, in an attempt to keep the Mini-14 off the banned list, came up with the concept of limiting magazine capacity. He said no civilian needed more than 10 rounds and halted the sales of Ruger 20 and 30 round Mini-14 magazines to civilians.

Democrats, never being one to turn down a gun ban, jumped all over it and added it to their several state bans and the federal ban.