Stop. Wookie Time...

In response to Lucky Gunner's very generous Memorial Day offer, RobertaX offered her thoughts on full-auto fun:

...I'm not a bad shot and the emotional reward of punching paper pretty close to the X and knowing which shot did it is more fun for me than having the gun go brrrrrap! and keeping the whole burst on the paper.

It saddens me that machine guns are such a rarity that they are viewed in this manner. Don't get me wrong - I feel the same way as Roberta about full auto - it's a fact of life and how things are. It's quite unfortunate - not to mention blatantly unconstitutional - that we can't all avail ourselves of the same weaponry used by our soldiers such that firing a machine gun would be (rightfully) seen as a chore and not a fun diversion. In a perfect (read: constitutional) world, a full-on select-fire M4 would cost only slightly more than it's semi-automatic brother - the cost of the auto sear.

The National Firearms Act of 1934 started the process by which the American gunowner was deprived access to the same hardware as the Armed Forces. The Hughes Amendment made it so that only the very wealthy could actively participate in full auto fun, causing cheap $300 machine pistols to bloat to 10X their real worth due to governmental interference. Presently, the least expensive fully automatic firearm runs about $3K - and rare and exotics run into tens of thousands of dollars. A transferable M16 - an honest-to-goodness M16 - will set you back anywhere from $10-15K. A police department can order a fully automatic AR-15 for about $200 more than the semi-auto counterpart.

We've been very fortunate at the Northeast bloggershoots. We've had several different folks show up with all kinds of suppressed and full-auto goodness (and, yes, even a 57mm recoilless rifle, thanks Wally!). I've gotten to know some FA enthusiasts and as a result have shot quite a few fully automatic weapons - M16s, Uzis, Thompsons; even a full-auto Glock 9mm pistol. It's fun; I've enjoyed every outing immensely (sometimes requiring copious amounts of a substance known as "work" to get the perma-grin off my face); but in the back of my mind there's a nagging feeling that it shouldn't be that enjoyable - because it should be a helluva lot more common.

These days, the cost of ammunition is really the limiting factor. At the last bloggershoot, I ran a 30-round magazine through the HK416 that was there, and realized something: In only a couple of seconds, I had burned up $15 worth of ammunition ($10/20 rounds of ammo, not even the most expensive .223 Remington either). Even 9mm, still the cheapest of centerfire ammo, is going for $10+ for 50 rounds, meaning the 30 round stick in an Uzi or MP5 is going to cost you $8 per zip. Were full-auto weapons available, I don't see their use becoming much more widespread than current. Heck, I prefer 20 round magazines in my Bushmaster to the 30s, simply because I burn through ammo a lot slower with the 20s.

Bottom line is that there's just no good reason to continue the embargo against these types of weapons. They should no longer be relegated to the rich, the playthings of the independently wealthy. It's high time the fearmongering gave way to the constitutionality - the second amendment means what it means: the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Making me pay $10K for a 25 year old M16 is one hell of an infringement. It's time to get that back to where it should be - an extra $100 - $200 in parts and nothing else.

It's time to demystify full auto.

Besides, if machine guns became mainstream again, the media might actually get it right when they called something a machine gun!

That is all.