The 1934 NFA is about automatic weapons, rifles with barrels under 16", and silencers. Stuff like that. Guns you cannot buy over the counter without paying a $200 tax for transfer of ownership. That is a small amount of guns in the hands of the people, and 99.99% of them are legally owned and never used in crime. Ever.
It's actually a good thing to read on when you get a balanced perspective about what it is saying - it's informative because so many shooters are completely in the dark about it. Full auto weapons are LEGAL TO OWN in America and always have been. In states that dont regulate against private ownership, which is the real problem, there are even fairs and shooting events where you can try one out. And if happen to be in Las Vegas there are ranges which will rent you one and take you out onto the firing line to shoot a magazine or short belt. It's a money maker as the owners all report that they see a lot of foreigners and coastal citizens who otherwise would never get to shoot them lined up for the opportunity. In terms of the 2A, it's a very profitable outreach program.
At one time there was one veteran per ten citizens in America, and they were all trained and proficient in full auto firearms. Now it's one in one hundred, because we operate a volunteer army. It seems that one of the issues about guns and what they are is now a complete lack of familiarity and legal knowledge about what they are and how to use them. And because of that, we get slanted misinformation published like this. It's amusing in one respect the writer missed one of the most important concepts of the information, and also disappointing that so many who have posted about it since it came out who missed it, too.
For a different perspective on how many guns we might likely own, try this:
http://weaponsman.com/?p=33875
The point of the article linked is that we have commonly accepted a figure of over 300 million guns in American hands for some time. And yet an examination of NICS transfers and other data show that 300 million new guns have changed ownership just in the last ten years - it doesn't even begin to include all the guns prior to about 1995. In my personal situation it would not include half the guns I own, as I bought the prior to 1995 and haven't sold them. Those I did sell were face to face transactions and didn't go thru NICS (which the gun banners want to force us to do.) Doing the math shows that we probably own nearly twice the figure - up to 600 million guns. The topic of who's a gun "superowner" comes into play, as the 55 million owners of firearms and how many the average one has then gets another boost: maybe the typical gun owner doesn't own just two or three, with all the rest in the hands of a few. Maybe we own 6-10, and the "superowners" have literally dozens.
Show me an experienced collector of an item in this country who deliberately limits the quantity of what he has. Hummel figurines? Militaria? Knives? Racing memoribilia? Cabbage Patch dolls, rocks, model airplanes, shoes, bayonets, cell phones, Hot Wheels miniatures, electric trains, Swarofski crystal figures, ad infinitum. Nobody stops with an even dozen and calls it good. Not hardly.
Not only are there a lot more guns than some people realize, there are a lot more gun owners, too. Just citing the NFA stats isn't the whole picture - and for that matter, allowing the NFA to determine what you can and can't own by imposing a tax on it that was initially meant to keep guns out of the hands of the common citizen is blatantly unconstitutional. So I don't mind seeing the story out and about, because it raises a discussion about it and that leads to people getting more information.
Informed voters make better decisions.
