I’ll let a New York Times article do some remembrance:

The (George H.) Bush Administration declared a permanent ban today on almost all foreign-made semiautomatic assault rifles. Imports of the weapons have been suspended since spring.
The permanent ban affects all but 7 of the 50 models included in the spring suspension. It does not affect the far larger number of virtually identical weapons manufactured domestically, nor does it affect foreign-made semiautomatic weapons already in the United States…

Administration officials said that without the ban 700,000 to one million foreign-made assault weapons would have been imported into the United States this year, but they acknowledged that the slack would easily be taken up by domestic manufacturers. A Significant Step
”We’re not saying it will solve the basic problem,” said Stephen E. Higgins, director of the firearms bureau, who announced the ban…

Today’s decision is a significant step in the evolution of the Administration’s gun control policies. It puts President Bush clearly at odds with the National Rifle Association and will almost certainly increase pressures on him to approve restrictions or an outright ban on domestic versions of semiautomatic assault weapons…

Senator Metzenbaum said he would ask the Senate Judiciary Committee to approve legislation barring domestically manufactured assault weapons when it meets next Thursday.
Asserting that domestic assault weapons were ”favored by drug dealers and street gangs,” he added, ”Any police officer will tell you it doesn’t matter if you are killed by an imported or American-made assault weapon -you are just as dead.”