Exactly - he obviously isn’t the brightest bulb in the pack...
So - what ever happened to soldiers being able to bring home “souvenirs of their service”? Lots of GIs from WWII not only brought home, but also MAILED home everything from rifles to lighters ashtrays. Lots of stuff...
Rules have changed. Any war trophy must be approved by the authorities in theater before shipment stateside. Almost no firearms are ever signed off on and even many bladed weapons are refused. COs just do not want to get involved.
The guy knew the gun was illegal anywhere on US soil.
A BCD is his ticket to never own or possess a firearm for the rest of his life (he knew this as well).
Even a hero can run a foul of the law by making dumb choices. Duke Cunningham, for one.
My guess is that the rules changed as more and more machine guns became prevalent on the battlefields. Moreover, the Gun Control Act of 1968’s ban on importing machine gun receivers would have put the kibosh on it...as I recall there were a few genuine AK-47s (among other burp guns) that made it over as war trophies from Vietnam (dewatted or otherwise) before 1968.
And ATF’s rule on receivers is “once a machine gun, always a machine gun”. Even if it was made as a semiauto and got the “happy switch” later with no mods to the receiver (e.g. an M1 carbine converted to an M2).