By Jane Prendergast
Enquirer staff writer

The expiration Monday of a 10-year national ban on assault weapons drew a lot of buzz, but local police and gun sellers say there will be little practical effect locally.

Karen Denny, of Air, Land Air & Sea Surplus in Newport, holds an Olympic Arms AR-15. (Enquirer photo/Sarah Conard)

There are aspects that many people misunderstand, said Karen Denny, owner of Land, Air & Sea Inc., an outdoors store that sells weapons in Newport:

• The ban, part of the Gun Control Act, made it illegal to make, transfer or possess 19 different specific firearms - all of them semiautomaticguns, not fully automatic.

• It never outlawed the sale of AK-47s and SKS assault rifles - Denny said she has sold those every week. Rather, the law restricted the manufacture and importation of new ones.

• A companion ban outlawed gun magazines - the devices that attach to firearms that house bullets - that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. That ban was also lifted at 12:01 a.m. Monday.

"The phone is ringing off the hook today," Denny said Monday afternoon. "People are wanting information. They just don't understand what it means."

She said she refers them to the federal government, via the Web site for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, www.atf.gov.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police called for members to urge their congressional delegates to extend the ban. But local police officers say they don't expect anything to change.

Gun owners who legally buy the weapons aren't usually those who cause problems with them.

The national police chiefs' group said failing to reauthorize the ban was a "significant step back'' for public safety.

Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, in Washington, D.C., - named for the press secretary to President Reagan who was shot and injured during a 1981 attempt on Reagan's life - said its analysis of U.S. Department of Justice records showed a 66 percent decline in incidents of assault weapons traced to crimes since the ban was enacted in 1994.

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E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com