When Congress passed an assault weapons ban in 1994, it was House Republicans who pushed the measure across the finish line.

Southern Democrats opposed the bill.

Had it not been for Republican support in the Democrat-controlled House, the ban on the high-powered, high-magazine weapons used in mass shootings would have never passed.

When the House passed the bill Aug. 21, 1994 in a 235-to-195 vote, 46 Republicans voted yes and 64 Democrats voted no.

It was truly a bipartisan victory and not the kind of bipartisanship touted in the current administration when a mere handful of Republicans split with their caucus on some much less controversial legislation.

Of course, the 1994 assault weapons ban — the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act — expired in 2004 because of sunset provisions included in the original bill.

All efforts to reinstate it, generally after the nation grieves over a horrific mass school shooting, have failed.

For a decade, the U.S. banned the kind of weapons used in yet another school shooting this week at The Covenant School in Nashville resulting in the deaths of three young children, three innocent adults and the 28-year-old shooter.

According to Associated Press reports, the shooter was armed with two “assault-style” weapons as well as a handgun. The authorities told the press that all of the weapons were believed to have been obtained legally in the Nashville area.

The decade-long assault rifle ban from 1994 to 2004 did not result in the dismantling of the Second Amendment.

It did, however, reduce the number of shootings where AK-47-type rifles were used, resulting in mass casualties.

To be clear, banning the military-style weapons will not reduce overall crime or make a substantial impact on gun violence.

It would however make it harder for someone planning a mass shooting to obtain the weapon which is used in the most horrific shootings, resulting in the highest numbers of deaths.

The dozens of Republicans who helped push the 1994 ban over the finish line were not in favor of seizing people’s guns or abridging their Second Amendment rights. They believed in common sense gun control in the aftermath of mass shootings.

It is the same kind of common sense the nation needs again.