HTColeman said:
Why would you want guns like these, what purpose do they serve other than mass killing?
Rifles in .50 BMG have existed all century long, and have been used in virtually NO crimes. Meanwhile, they are used in tons of long - range shooting sports, where they excel. Typically they are large 15-30lb rifles that are about 6 feet long, and hold 5-10 bullets, and are generally single-shot, bolt action, or semi-automatic(that means it fires once per-trigger-pull for the ignorant people who believe sarah brady when she says that is full-auto[machinegun]), and pack one heck of a recoil whallop. Also, the cheapest of these guns are $3000 and they usually range from $7000-12000. To shoot them costs about a dollar to a dollar fifty a round. Does that sound like a weapon that would be used for mass-killing?
M4a1? Well the civilian semi-auto versions have also been existing ever since the AR-15 existed. To date, they haven't been used improportionately to other guns in crime. As far as them being less enticing for crowd killing, Quite frankly, if you really think about it Full-Auto is crap for "mass-killing" Say you were a mass-killer. What would you rather do, waste 30 rounds in about a second or two all into about three people in a crowd, or fire about 1 bullet into about thirty people in a crowd? Full auto isn't like the movies. There are TWO(2) purposes for full-auto. (Why the military has them)
#1, They are good for suppression fire (that means good for keeping the enemies covering)
#2, They are good for EXTREME close quarters. That does not mean for mass-killing. That means getting off as many rounds possible into an individual target as fast as possible to take them down before they take you down.
M60, well, I suppose if you had it belt-fed and a long enough belt, you could cause a significant amount of damage with it. But of course nobody will notice that you are toting a light machine gun into town. The record still has it that these wouldn't be the preferred mechanism to a criminal. Criminals generally have no problem in obtaining any gun they want. 86% of crimes in total are committed with illegally purchased guns, and for another example from the murder-capital of the free world (Washington D.C.) where virtually all guns are banned, 20% of the guns used in crime are home-made. It really isn't too difficult to make guns, even machine guns are simple devices. If I had a pipe, and a welding tool and a few other easy to get raw materials, I myself contain the necessary knowledge to create simple small automatic weapons and easier yet, a simple single-shot zip gun which virtually anybody could make from a pipe a nail and a home made stock and action. Of course, since I don't intend to go to jail for 10 years if I am caught, and I'm not a criminal and don't intend to commit any crimes, I won't be making anything like this anytime soon. But like I said, criminals don't care about the law. The law only prevents law-abiding citizens such as myself from getting the fun stuff.
Also, in 1934, when machineguns were essentially removed from civilians without license there is an interesting thing. Since then and before, there has only been 1(one) crime committed with a legally owned machine gun. The irony here, is that the person who commited a crime, was a police officer!
Before 1934, there are no records of any legal machineguns being used in a crime.
Now, you may be saying, "but, what about the mobsters who have used them and the gangsters and stuff" Well, it may come as a surprise to you, but they just don't care much about the law, and usually prefer to buy guns illegally where they'll be harder to trace anyways. (Even without registration, it'd still be dangerous to buy legally. Guns can be traced to where you bought it based off of credit card information and simple business operations and reciepts. They investigate this stuff for any item used in any crime. That's another reason why Registration isn't very useful for much except for allowing the gov to see exactly where all the guns are so they can take them. And so far every major country that has done registration has taken advantage of it. They said it would never happen in Britain)
In general, for the average murder, any tool ranging from a knife to any sort of firearm is sufficient against attacking an unprepared victim. Where criminals have popularly used machineguns (which have, in ALL cases been illegally obtained ones) they have consistently been used against other gangsters in tactical combat. Once again, tactical combat doesn't mean killing mass numbers of people, that means the capability to take specific objectives efficiently. For example, it might be useful for the military when clearing out buildings if there are insurgents cowering behind the wall ready to fire a burst. Against the unarmed person in a building, time isn't so critical as someone is probably not worrying about being shot or ambushed inside. For the mob, the limited numbers of guns that they had in full auto were useful for killing other mobsters at close range before they could attack back.
The whole point? If criminals wanted machine guns, they could get them. No law is going to stop them from getting at the abundant source of illegally imported, illegally manufactured, and illegally stolen firearms. It's kind of like the prohibition for alcohol. First off, they don't work. Second, they create a whole new line of work for criminals who can get rich off of selling taboo goods.(these are the same criminals who commit a lot of violent crimes) (And it's not like the people buying them [criminals] are going to be spending their own money) Am I saying that criminals don't use machine guns? Well some do, but they are not the majority, and I'm mainly trying to say, that banning them isn't doing a thing to stop them. In fact, with the prices of legal machine guns becoming extremely high due to supply & demand (now theres a lot of civilian law-abiding demand and little supply of legal machineguns) they can actually get them cheaper on the black market, which is unusual for most things sold illegally.
The same is true I believe for the War on Drugs. In fact, I believe that is one of the major things in this country that cause crime. I don't endorse the use of drugs, but I also don't endorse useless spending of tax-payer dollars to increase crime. That's where the majority of the gangs and mafias get formed, is when the people want something that the government won't let them have. Bottom line? If you want something bad enough, you get it.
