Full-auto blackmarket?

[leadcounsel]

Proportional to semiautomatics, there aren't many FA out there. That means they are rare (relatively speaking) and valuable. Too valuable to leave them out to get solen, use them for small time crimes, etc.

 

[Zoogster]

Proportional to semiautomatics, there aren't many FA out there. That means they are rare (relatively speaking) and valuable. Too valuable to leave them out to get solen, use them for small time crimes, etc.

Honestly I think there is simply a lack of demand for them. There is plenty of them in Mexico and South America, and if the same type of demand for them existed as for illegal drugs then they would be smuggled into the US for sale on a similar scale. Easily by the very same people, using the very same established routes.
Since the sources for many of them is the government itself, through LEO or military, as well as defecting members of LEO or military in those nations, the source would be nearly impossible to cut off.
So the supply exists, and the ability to import exists, there is simply not a demand that is considered worth meeting.

 

[mljdeckard]

I think this is very true. It also demonstrates why banning ANYTHING in America will not prevent it from being used in a crime.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

New Jersey gave us the 14-shot Marlin Model 60.

You haven't spent much time in New Jersey. It's about as hard to find full auto for sale here as to get the clap in a $5 cathouse.

Well, that's New Jersey, where the gun laws are aimed at legal guns and legal gun possession. In jurisdictions where laws are aimed at criminals and criminal use of guns, criminals might be discouraged by enforcement against possession by a felon, possession or use in furtherance of a criminal enterprise, use of a gun in a felony with penalty for use of machinegun greater than penalty for the original felony, and so on. Most gun laws aimed at legal guns and legal ownership may not be enforced against criminal offenders on the principle of crime-in-chief: criminal defendents are charged, tried and convicted on the most serious offenses, so in a murder or armed robbery the New Jersey-style gun law violations are often not prosecuted.

 

[ScottG1911]

yeah they are out there, but I try to keep away from that stuff, $250,000 and 5 years of my life aint worth it. they are there, and most are in honest people's hands. (honest as in they arent around killing no one, just have the gun to plink with) I could personally get one, but like i said above, aint worth it. and you watch the news too much man, the most common "gangsta" weapon is a 380. hell give me an open bolt mac 10 and a fountain pen, and stand back.

 

[Prince Yamato]

What would stop non-registered machine guns from being taken to a class II, marked by the class II with a new serial and gun manufacturer name, then registered accordingly?

Legalities aside, I'd be shocked if that hasn't happened.

 

[Logan5]

One more thought on the topic. I know a guy that recently had his home robbed. Two off paper AK bringbacks were taken. I'm sure he didn't put that on the police report. These items are out there in large numbers and have very high risk associated with them. It would be good public policy to do an amnesty to get the items on the books.

What kind of amnesty scenario do you imagine motivating someone who has stolen two illegal AKs to come forward and try to "get them on the books"?

 

[Carl N. Brown]

I think he was talking about the original owner being able to register the war trophies, which would have made him willing to report the theft. I dont think the thief would register them even with an amnesty.

On WWII war trophy full autos, if the owner had papers from his CO authorising the war trophy, the heirs could have the gun entered in the NFA registry (it takes a probate lawyer familiar with NFA rules and authorized FA war trophies ceased after the Korean War IIRC).

Which brings up my question: isn't it possible to title and register an antique car that has been sitting on blocks for decades and "gone off the books"?

If the goal of gun control was to regulate firearms, it isn't but ought to be possible to get war trophies registered on the NFA registry, rather than leave them in limbo. There are a lot of them out there, and without NFA registry prospects they often get in black market circulation.

My late step dad knew a guy who was a bank guard who had bought a personal Thompson when it was legal to do so, but when he retired, he did not realize he had to surrender the gun as a private citizen. Eventually Feds showed up on his doorstep to inquire about the whereabouts of the tommy gun he had bought when he was a bank guard. It was in a trunk in his attic. He surrendered it. Every year after that, once a year, a federal agent made a pro forma call on him. They mostly "talked shop" about their experiences as federal police and bank guard, but before he left the fed had to ask him if he had been avoiding contraband. It would have saved everyone a lot of time and effort if he had been allowed to register the gun, in absence of criminal intent.