Heck, LE pricing on new MP5's is less than many people pay for semi-auto handguns.
Yes and H&K knows people will drop 1K on a handgun, so why would they drop the price to say that of a Hi-Point? The big AR manufactures know that people will give 10-20 thousand for a M16, even if the Hughes was repealed they would not start selling M16's overnight for 599.99, they would start out as high as the market would bear to pay, who knows what that would be, it might be 6 thousand dollars, or it might be 1500.00.
In 2004, H&K was awarded a major handgun contract for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, worth a potential $26.2 million for up to 65,000 pistols. This contract ranks as the single largest handgun procurement contract in US law enforcement history. That brakes down to around 407.08 per gun. But if you were to order 20,000 pistols I am sure they would cut you a deal too.
Not all guns are "cheaper" to produce in full auto either, yes you can make a 10/22 full auto in literally seconds, but its not safe or controllable. You can make one select fire and that cost around 800.00.
Hard to say what the factory may do (if it became legal to sell their products here...they are in the business of selling things, but of course we suck and they hate us),
No not really, H&K has a very carefully worded contract that states what they will and will not sell inside the United States. Why do you think there are no semi-auto only mp5's or H&K factory SBR's?