b-kulthis exactly. even if people want a hand gun for self defense I'm fine with it. but who needs a weapon like that? people seem to forget what prompted the right to bear arms and just what kind of guns were available. i doubt our founding fathers intended that to cover sub machine guns.
sorry for this long-ass post, I'm busy not paying attention in anthropology....
the thing is, if you are competent and have enough common sense to own one gun, there is no reason you shouldn't be allowed to own a million of any type. it's not the gun, it's the person behind it. yes, there are plenty of people who shouldn't be allowed to own guns. but if you are smart enough to be able to use it properly and not shoot anyone, why shouldn't you be allowed to own whatever kind you want?
also, fully automatic weapons are much harder to come by than the media puts out and people want to believe. it seems like people think any idiot can just easily come by a fully automatic assault rifle. yes, you can buy them legally, but I can assure you almost any fully automatic weapon used in a shooting was not legally attained. legal automatics run for ridiculous amounts of money, AK-47's and M-16's are around $15,000 last time I checked, and a MAC-10 or MAC-11 will run you between $5000-$8000 (MAC's were made in mass production before the automatic weapon ban of 1986, hence why they are cheaper. also, apparently they are a bitch to shoot.) and no, you can't just "make" a semiauto fully automatic. I won't get into the mechanics, but without professional machining it is damn near impossible.
automatic weapons are also, in my opinion, much less dangerous than a semiautomatic. I know that sounds retarded at first glance, but hear me out. with an automatic weapon, you are completely out of ammunition in MAYBE 5 seconds (I don't know at which the speed a automatic empties it's magazine, but I assure you it's incredibly fast.) also, fully automatic weapons are incredibly less accurate than a semiautomatic is. I've read that the military trains their soldiers to keep automatic firing to bursts of three. automatic fire is more for cover fire and not actual target firing. the kick from firing fully automatic makes it damn near impossibly for an untrained civilian to fire accurately in the slightest. semiautomatic allows you the time between each shot to adjust and control recoil. so yes, automatics fire more bullets, but they aren't nearly as accurate. I've heard some gun enthusiasts state they would rather be shot at by an automatic than a semiauto. ammo is also very expensive and makes owning and shooting an automatic very difficult to do often.
I do believe we as americans should have every right to own the guns we want, but I'm not saying there shouldn't be steps to ensuring the wrong people don't end up with them. that includes licenses, background checks, etc., but the solution isn't calling guns evil or banning everything. automatics are much less dangerous, scary, and common than the media or the general population would like to believe.
TL;DR: guns are only as dangerous as the person behind them and automatics are not scary evil things.
