Urist_McGunner brought it up already, badly I might add, but didn't we try to control alochol a while ago? Didn't that end with it being banned and yet having its usage and avaibality rise to higher levels than before the ban? I would prefer we didn't start a gun probation and end up with Al Capone with a AK-47. I believe that gun laws should be tightned up reasonably but some people are getting way to mad about this. Beef up the laws a bit and put a few more police in the schools. It might prevent this from happening again.
Uh, mcclay? AK-47 are already legal. Modern-day al-Capone would have to have a Military Machine gun to be more dangerous.
Besides, the situation is different. This isn't something you can just ferment in your backyard. This is complex machinery. Home-made versions suck.
AK-47s are NOT legal except in certain circumstances. Basically, you have to have tens of thousands of dollars and submit to an extensive background check. There are things that look like AK-47s, but you aren't getting anything fully automatic unless it was made before 1986. "Military machine guns" aren't something the average Joe is going to own depending on you definition of the term.
Generally, if you want something that will fire more than one bullet with a pull of the trigger, you're going to be out a few thousand dollars and a FBI probing.
There are many weapons made for the civilian market that look like their military counterparts, but they function differently. You'd have to make illegal modifications to make the weapons function in the same manner.
I'm sure our BATF guy could enlighten you more on the subject if he wishes to do so.
I may be splitting hairs, but a lot of people seem to be under the assumption that fully automatic weapons are easy to get, when they really aren't.
"Assault weapon" bans are baffling to many gun owners because many of the things that make a weapon an "Assault weapon" are purely cosmetic. 2 firearms can be functionally identical, but one could be considered an assault weapon because it has a bayonet lug or a pistol grip.