According to the tracing data, the most common assault rifles traced to crime by make and model include: 21 Colt AR-15s; 46 USA Military Surplus M1 Carbines; 55 Ruger Mini14s; 92 HiPoint 9mm carbines; and 294 North China Industries SKS variants.

Note the inclusion of “Ruger Mini14s” as “assault rifles.”
Yet these rifles were specicifically exempted from the 1994 assault weapon ban as “Hunting and Sporting Firearms.”

http://www.keepandbeararms.com/AWBan/text.asp

Senator Feinstein, the author of the 1994 Assault Weapon Ban, says on her web site:

Hunting Guns and Other Recreational Weapons Exempted in the Legislation:

Ruger Mini-14 Autoloading Rifle (w/o folding stock)

http://www.senate.gov/~feinstein/exempted_guns.html

The Brady Campaign says on their web site:

The amendment specifically lists 650 sporting rifles that would not be affected by the ban.

http://www.bradycampaign.org/legislation/federal/pages.php?page=senatevotes

Then-President Clinton said in “An Open Letter to Hunters and Sportsmen” on April 29, 1994:

“High-paid lobbyists argue that the assault weapons ban will infringe on our right, as hunters and sportsmen, to own guns. But what they don’t tell you is that the proposal I support specifically safeguards hunter’s rights. It explicitly protects more than 650 hunting and recreational rifles from the ban.”

http://clinton6.nara.gov/1994/04/1994-04-29-presidents-letter-to-hunters-on-assault-weapons-ban.html

Why is Ceasefire describing as “assault rifles” guns that were described as “hunting,” “sporting,” and “recreational” rifles by Senator Feinstein, the Brady Campaign, and President Clinton?

How many of those scary looking firearms “traced to a crime” were actually stolen weapons recovered by police? Those get traced too. And in how many of the remaining cases was the crime not an actual use of the firearm, but simple possession by a prohibited person?