Will we ever get full autos back?

When has this argument ever had any validity to to a gun grabber? Even though nearly 300,000 people in this country currently own machine guns, only one murder has been attributed to a FA in the last 80 years, and that was a policemen silencing an informant with a FA scorpion. They are targeting .50's as well, and I do not believe a crime has ever been committed with one.

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According to the VPC a .50 cal has been used in one fatal firearm accident, one possible homicide (I say possible because the news claimed it was a .50), one case of accidentally starting a fire, and the Branch Davidians fired some at the ATF (http://www.vpc.org/snipercrime.htm). Obviously this list goes back to the mid 90s and mostly includes possession cases.

Then again, if you look at an almost 20 year span you could probably find at least one case of almost any item being used as a murder weapon.

I've always thought that if the political climate won't accept deregulated full autos, an opening of the registry coupled with an increase of the NFA tax on new full autos being increased to (approximately correct inflation) $2500-$3000 would be nice "compromise.". They get their "guns off the streets," and we get ARs for 4-5k instead of 20-30k.

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The $200 tax is completely arbitrary though. You have to remember they hard coded $200 into the law in 1934. $200 back then was $2,500 - $3,000 in today's money. IMHO the only explanation for doing that was to mis-use Congress's power to tax under the 16th Amendment to price legal ownership of NFA items out of average joe's reach.

Edit to add: I take that back, according to http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm $200 in 1934 = $3,485.13 in 2013.

Opening the registry would put an even tighter kink in the ammunition shortage.

My M11A1 snarfs .380 ACP at around $20 per second with the selector on "FULL".

It's huge fun, but feeding a full auto has to be high on the list of "expensive things to do for fun."

Our best hope is to get a Libertarian in the White House who will then decide not to enforce the NFA, GCA, or FOPA. The precedent for this has already been established by Obama with DOMA.

The 16th amendment authorized the income tax. Nothing to do with the NFA. Had quite a bit to do with the 18th amendment though.

In some ways I do wish we could return to a time when congress recognized that they did not have the constitutional authority to outright ban things. That would be nice.

Frank Ettin said:

But since there are regulation, for $20.00 you could spend 10 years in a federal prison, pay a $10,000 fine and lose your gun rights for the rest of your life

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I am starting to think this site is being monitored by the BATF and other govt agencies, being the way all comments are strictly limited. what a way to live if true. I am not advocating illegal activity or a free for all but mostly everything will be illegal soon anyway

one case of accidentally starting a fire

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Am I the only one that got tickled over reading this?

(Oh, the mayhem of fifties)

Will we ever get full autos back?

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I don't believe that the electorate is willing to bring enough pressure to bear upon our elected officials to make that happen.

I think there could be a real liability issue with burst or full auto fire. I can hear the attorney's now, "so did you INTEND to shoot him 3 times?" "oh so its the guns fault huh?"

The anti's will ask "what next? stinger missiles for duck hunting?"
(BTW, that would be AWESOME!!! "I've got a tone, FOX-1 AWAY!" quack quack Powfft!)

Its just not a battle that we need to fight,
- lets get 50 state shall issue concealed carry that includes NYC and DC,
- lets get the NJ hollow point ban lifted,
- lets get magazine restrictions repealed,
- lets get the stamp off of suppressors,
- lets turn Diane Feinstein into a kick ass cowboy action shooter and Obama's daughters on the Olympic Skeet team.

We have so many bridges left to cross, a concerted effort to restore the Maxim Machine gun to civilian use is just a distracting political non starter.

(I'm all for the Stingers though)

The 16th amendment authorized the income tax. Nothing to do with the NFA.

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The NFA is a tax though. The government's lawyers argued in United States v. Miller

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Miller said:

1.The NFA is intended as a revenue-collecting measure and therefore within the authority of the Department of the Treasury.
2.The defendants transported the shotgun from Oklahoma to Arkansas, and therefore used it in interstate commerce.
3.The Second Amendment protects only the ownership of military-type weapons appropriate for use in an organized militia.
4.The "double barrel 12-gauge Stevens shotgun having a barrel less than 18 inches in length, bearing identification number 76230" was never used in any militia organization.

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Incidentally the penalty for not buying health insurance was found by the SCOTUS to be a tax and therefore in Congress's power. This is the first case I'm aware of where you can be taxed for doing absolutely nothing. IMHO the NFA is an abuse of the tax power, espicially the amount it was set at in 1934, but at least you had to do something to owe the tax.

Ten bucks says if you asked Holder what the purpose of the NFA regulations was, he would say something other than "a revenue collection measure"

TCB

This is the first case I'm aware of where you can be taxed for doing absolutely nothing.

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Not necessarily. It's a tax for living.

The government has been taxing you for dying for a very long time (estate tax).