Semi-automatic firearms fall under "bearable arms" and thus protected by the constitution. The enshrinement of constitutional rights - necessarily and intentionally - takes certain policy choices off the table.
The saint valentines massacre was the only notable one, back in 19 thirty something. Any semi auto can be made full auto with some disassembly and a file. Even a semi trained monkey can accomplish it
Your opinion does not trump the Constitution. These vehicles are easily and legally available to anyone who has the $.
almost every fully automatic weapon used by the bootlegging gangs (a criminal enterprise created directly and almost exclusively by the idiocy of Prohibition) were obtained illegally through Police or National Guard arsenals. There weren't many choices or numbers of machine guns available to civilian buyers and the Depression made the cost rather prohibitive to most folks
Even if there were fully legal most people could not afford to shoot one nowadays unless it was chambered in 22. A full auto is basically useless unless you just want to piss away ammunition. Now a select fire? That's what's up.
we should ask our gun banning posters what the main purpose of fully automatic fire is on a hand held carbine
To have f-u-n..... And piss away more money than you did on the 4th of July on fireworks. Lol. Did you ever see that 22 long rifle chambered fully automatic gun that saw lots of action during the wars in South Africa? It's got a drum magazine sitting horizontally a top of the weapon that holds something like 200 rounds. That would be pretty fun and controllable and not break the bank to shoot.
No, we don't, nor does SCOTUS. Their rulings are pretty clear on that. Perhaps surprisingly the Democrats in Congress aren't trying to limit what guns we can own, either.
Military vehicles aren't illegal to own and operate on public highways. You should have picked a better comparison. You don't regulate cars, like you think. Most cars are capable of going more than 85 mph, yet the highest speed limit in the country is 85 mph. Guns are far more regulated than cars. I have to pay hundreds of dollars, wait months, maybe up to a year, do a background check and get a license to own a short-barreled rifle. I can buy a car capable of doing 120 mph and drive it off the lot, today. No background check, no registration, no wait.
The Vegas shooter could have killed as many, or more with a van full of fertilizer, diesel fuel and an ignition system. He could have used arson to inflict that many casualties. He was also a licensed pilot (see what I did there?) and could have crashed an airplane loaded with tanks of gasoline into that crowd.
He could have bought a water-cooled M2 and 5000 rounds of ammunition. He would have killed 1000 people. Maybe more. Thank God he only had an AR15.
Using a bazooka to rob a bank would be counter-productive. The explosion would alert everyone for over a mile and cause the police and fire department to lock down the whole area, cutting off the escape route.
one of his two planes-filled with fuel-flown into the crowd-would have killed over 2000 people according to an investigator I knew who worked on this issue. with 10 million dollars and a pilots license, he could have obtained a GE mini gun with a 6000 round belt-put it up in that room and in a couple minutes hosed down the entire crowd with 762 NATO rounds
so do you blame me easy access to vehicles for drunk driving? Reality is you're just blaming guns you're just using a few more words to say that you are.
Bolt-action, certainly. He'd have done MORE damage with a Springfield or a SMLE. Shotgun, no, too far. Bolt-action rifle, certainly. They CAN be driven on public roads-there's a guy in upstate NY who has a registered, street-driven armored car-either a Daimler Ferret or a Crosley Saladin.
Yes they can. It depends on the liscencing requirements of the state; weight limits, space between axles, width, bumper style, indicator light configuration... like I said, complicated. Tracked vehicles for example are pretty much impossible to get allowed to be driven on public roads, though temporary exceptions have been made for tracked vehicles with rubber pads on the tracks.
Registered. (NY "antique/collector", IIRC.) Street-driven. I saw no modifications except for license plate mounts and street-oriented tires.
Now see what you did? You’ve stirred up a nest of 2A fundamentalists who do not want to hear from you, they just want to hear their own echo chamber. Having a reasonable discussion about gun control is impossible. It’s like trying to argue Biblical contradictions with an evangelical. Logic need not apply. They will argue there are too many laws already, laws are useless, gun rights are more important than a safe society. This is a pretty fringe crowd.
