[diamond6]

I'll admit, I may not be as knowledgeable about which guns apply to this law, as you. However, would you be in favor of allowing the public to purchase machine guns?

[Long Cut]

The public IS allowed to purchase machine guns. Look it up.

Subject to background checks and taxes, no FEDERAL law prohibits ownership by a civilian of a fully-automatic weapon.

However, this odious piece of legislative excrement does NOT cover Machine guns. It only covers semiauto sporters which happen to resemble military arms.

[Ramius]

would you be in favor of allowing the public to purchase machine guns?

Sure. Actually: They are legal. Machine guns aren't illegal, they are merely very heavily taxed. You could get the license to own one if you wished, though now I think the fee is now something like $600/year.

An important thing to keep in perspective here is: what weapons are normally used in street crime? The answer is usually cheap throwaway guns, not expensive guns that most enthusiasts would own.

The real threat on the streets would come from *banning* guns. This would force the drug gangbangers into the gun import trade along with the drug import trade. The international arms markets being what they are... the gangbangers would end up importing *much* more dangerous hardware than they are now using. Journalists freak out over drive-by shootings done with AK-knockoffs that are actually just semiautomatic rifles. I cannot even imagine the verbage they'd use if drive-by shooting were happening with RPG's, M-60's and Grenades. If we want to find out, then all we have to do is ban all the guns. We'll see it soon enough.

[Ford Fairlane]

would you be in favor of allowing the public to purchase machine guns?

Why not? Every Swiss citizen owns one.

When the constitution was written, the Long Rifle was the premier military arm, and a lot of the citizens owned them.

Our constitution was written to protect the citizens from the government, not the other way around.