vicdotcom said:
I mean really, if they passed a "register your AR/AK amnesty" law today, you know that there will always be a bunch of people that will not register.
You're comparing apples to doorknobs. In '68 the NFA had been settled law for 30+ years. There existed legal MGs and more were being produced for "Joe Six-Pack" every day. You could still go buy M16s, MACs, Reislings, ect. and just run through the paperwork, pay the stamp tax and pick up your MG in a few weeks.
Further, 30 years previous the government said "come in and register your full autos and we won't arrest you or take them away." Fast forward 30 years and everyone still has their machine guns AND the ATF is just asking anyone with one that happened to appear in the last 30 years to bring it in to get it on the books.
So, even if you had illegally stashed a "bring back" and you payed any attention to politics at all (which you might if you had an illegal machine gun under your bed) you just had to march on down, pay your tax and get your name and gun registered in the NFRTR. No fuss, no muss, no JBTs kicking down your door a week later to stomp your puppy, snipe your wife, burn down your church and home .... nothing. It took the ATF another 30 years to get around to those things
All MGs had to be registered anyway to be legal AND the ATF gave anyone who was breaking the law the opportunity to "come clean."
In your AR-15 scenario none of the provisions of taxing and registration are in place. So, there are no similarities at all.
Though I do agree with you on one point. If the Fed Gov said tomorrow that all guns required registration and a tax and we should bring them down to pay it and get signed up there might be a TREMENDOUS spike in the number of boating accidents in the preceding months that were never reported to authorities until just about that time
Honestly, I take your point, it just makes me sick to think that over the course of the next 10 years how many machineguns we're going to lose as the greatest generation go on to their warrior's reward. Particularly when, in retrospect, the fedgov never did come after those NFA items they folded into the amnesty.
Hindsight ... such a useful tool.
ETA:
D94R said:
Hang it from your wall in your "man room". Never shoot it. Never tell anyone the extreme details. Never let anyone take it down and see it. Never answer picky questions about it. Have this thread deleted.
Then, enjoy it for what it is and hope that one day you can enjoy that piece of history outside of secrecy.
To the OP:
IF you choose to take this advice please, please, pretty please with sugar on top, consider very carefully that will always be one mishap, slipped word or wrong-door no-knock away from being a federal felon with a minimum sentence of 10years in ClubFed and a $10,000 fine .... minimum.
I strongly suggest you look into your heart and think about the ramifications of the actions presented above.
Whether or not the law is just or right it is, currently, the law. Civil disobedience is one thing when it's a few months in jail for greater moral good. It's entirely a different matter when you're looking at 10 years for the privledge of keeping a piece of equipment a secret for the rest of your tenure on this rock. Besides, then YOUR family has to figure out what to do with it.
Get a lawyer, do whatever he says is your best shot at staying out of dutch with the alphabet boys.
