That would maybe work if in fact full auto was a banned product but it's not. Anybody can possess a full auto so called machine gun if they possess the proper TAX STAMP for a paltry $200 from the BATFE. It's not even a permit per se but has the same effect as one for the hoops you have to jump through to obtain the tax stamp. These have been greatly lessened by the BATFE in allowing a document to be substituted in place of a person in the form of a CLASS III FIREARMS TRUST. Now you can have an attorney establish such a trust for full auto and or suppressors and the Bureau investigates the TRUST rather than the person holding the trust. Sounds stupid, but it works. You can lawfully own up to a .50 BMG belt fed weapon this way. Mike Dillon of Dillon Precision, the company that revolutionized the hobby of ammo reloading, has an electric minigun (helicopter mounted) and an electric QUAD 50 the operator sits inside to fire. Good thing his company specializes in selling reloading ammo machines, huh? Of course once you've paid the gov't it's $200 for the stamp you still have to shell out another $30K for the weapon itself. Then you have to pay to feed the beast. Suppressors are less at around $800 each.
Not one made since 1986. It was part of the Reagan era Fire Arm Owners Protection Act.
It's also part of 18 USC 922 section (o), which reads:
(o)
(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), it shall be unlawful for any person to transfer or possess a machinegun.
(2) This subsection does not apply with respect to—
(A) a transfer to or by, or possession by or under the authority of, the United States or any department or agency thereof or a State, or a department, agency, or political subdivision thereof; or
(B) any lawful transfer or lawful possession of a machinegun that was lawfully possessed before the date this subsection takes effect.
The notes indicate that the date this subsection takes effect, referred to in subsec. (o)(2)(B), as May 19, 1986,
The FOPA was in general a Good Thing, it repealed many of the provisions of the Gun Control Act of 1968, such as the ban on mail order ammunition, having to sign for all "handgun" ammunition, etc. and it (temporarily as it turned out) reigned in the BATF.
Only if it was made before 1986 if you are not either a dealer or Law enforcement. When you consider what limiting the number of arms out there has done to the price of transferrable Class III arms, $200.00 does indeed seem a "paltry" fee.
Yes and no. New ones cannot be manufactured nor imported. Even if it were feasible to convert these, the BATFags would still not have a point, as it is physically possible to convert the civilian equivalent of a select fire military weapon to full auto, and even BATFE admits those are still legal (and certainly much more feasible to convert than one of these plastic toys).