Why would you want to indiscriminately throw 200+ rounds/minute around? I say 'indiscriminately' because if you have ever fired a fully automatic weapon; you would know that after the first 5-10 rounds leave the rifle, you have little control over where the rest of the clip goes.
Contrast this against your 9mm, .357, .45, .22 ect. One shot, and you have a really good idea where that bullet went. And with semi-automatics; we still have idiots spraying the neighborhood with bullets. Now, instead of maybe having 2-5 people getting sprayed in a crowd; the entire crowd can be cut in half.
Restricting purely offensive weaponry such as machine guns protects society as a whole, which is probably pretty close to the origonal intent of the founding fathers. I wonder how the founding fathers would felt about farmers with cannon?
You are showing your ignorance on a subject that I handle everyday. I have over 100 machine guns in my house, most are WWI and WW2 watercooled and beltfeds...you obviously don't know a thing about automatic weapons and get your information from TV and Hollywierd. I can draw my name in a target with certain machine guns. Some are VERY VERY accurate on every shot.
Wow...two ignorant statements in one post (Not trying to insult you, but you are severely lacking in facts). Pick up a history book. FARMERS WITH CANNONS WERE ON THE CONFISCATION LIST WHEN THE BRITS LEFT BOSTON.
This is totally incorrect. The word "arms" meant weapons of offense when the Constitution was written.
True machine guns (that is belt fed) rather than assault rifles with full auto capability are very easy to control. If it didn't violate operating procedures and common sense you could keep a full belt from a ma deuce in pretty much the same beaten zone.
Restricting purely offensive weaponry such as machine guns protects society as a whole
Who died and left you and the BATF as the determiners of what constitutes an "offensive" weapon?. If you had an knowledge of history, you'd know that machine guns serve a defensive role more often than not.
"I wonder how the founding fathers would felt about farmers with cannon?"
Well considering that cannons were around when they wrote that little ditty and they didn't say except cannons, seems to me that they didn't have an issue with that.
What defines an offensive weapon? Any weapon can be an offensive weapon.
BTW, I have yet to see a person cut in half by full auto fire (except in Hollywood), after all as you pointed out the bullets are indiscriminately thrown out and to cut someone (let alone a crowd) in half would require the bullets to form a virtual knife by being thrown out in a controlled succession.
The Founding Fathers WERE farmers with cannon!!!
you have little control over where the rest of the clip goes.
Some of us are trained in their correct, safe & effective use. Leave us alone.
One more thing about the indiscriminately throwing rounds, a shotgun does the same thing. Should we restrict/ban them?