When most of us think of an "assault rifle" we think of the fully automatic Tommy guns used by Al Capone's henchmen during prohibition. Did you know those guns have been restricted since FDR?
There seems to be a lot of intentional ambiguity about the difference between fully-automatic and semi-automatic assault weapons. Bill Clinton's assault weapons ban only applied to the latter group, and that's because there is already a ban on the sale of new fully automatic assault weapons to citizens.
Yes, they still make fully automatic weapons, for sale to law enforcement. And yes, a gun collector can still procure a used fully automatic weapon - with restrictions. You need a special ATF license which requires a background check, and then you have to pay a $200 ATF tax, and you must also designate a licensed gun dealer who will take possession of the weapon in the event of your death. And since you, as a citizen, may not purchase a new machine gun, the price of used weapons is 10 - 20 times more than the retail cost.
In 1995 there were over 240,000 machine guns registered with the ATF.
Approximately half of those are owned by law enforcement, and the other half are owned by private citizens.
In the United States, there are 1,000 times more regular guns than there are machine guns. But legally registered machine guns only account for a miniscule number of deaths.
Since 1934, there appear to have been at least two homicides committed with legally owned automatic weapons.
Yes, you read that right.
In the last 80 years, legally registered machine guns have accounted for TWO deaths. Illegal, or non-registered machine guns account for a fair number of killings - in 1980, 1% of Miami homicides were committed with machine guns. It's nearly impossible to start drawing statistical comparisons when talking about illegal gun ownership, since there are no records of these guns and they are owned exclusively by criminals (they are
illegal guns, after all).
But one thing is clear - the restrictions placed on machine guns has absolutely worked to decrease the number of deaths caused by these guns.
11:57 AM PT: On a suggestion by TX unmuzzled in the comments, I have changed the title away from "There are 240,000 fully automatic guns in the US, and only 2 deaths in 80 years". The previous title led to many knee jerk assumptions that I was an advocate for machine gun possession.
