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Comment by saosebastiao | Hacker News Reader

I don't wish for the feeling of desperation on anybody. Even for someone who has morals, desperation can warp your sense of reality. Back when I was a truck driver, I had a substantial offer from someone to transport a duffle bag in my utility lock box across state lines. I was desperate, and it was a lot of money. I rationalized, told myself it was just gonna be some drugs, and I never get pulled over anyway. No big deal, I told myself. Until I grabbed the bag, and realized it wasn't drugs. Took a peek once I was out of sight, and it was definitely submachine guns. I started panicking and about 10 miles down the road came up with my plan. I pulled over, punctured a cooling hose, ran my engine til I overheated, and then called my contact and told him I had overheated and steamed out all my coolant and wasn't going to make it. That interaction was probably the most terrifying experience of my life. Never again.

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That plan could have backfired horribly. The police would have stopped to help you. Or your contact could have refused to pick up the phone, or could have just said "you made a deal. Now deliver the bag, no matter what it takes."

Depends on the drugs. A duffel bag of weed isn't going to hurt anyone. A duffel bag of meth or oxy will most likely kill many more people than a bag of machine guns. Unless your country was in a civil war at the time, I imagine those weapons never saw use. Hard drugs, on the other hand, get consumed and regularly kill people and destroy lives.

Don't be naive. I heard guns like these from my bedroom window growing up, and that was in Stockton CA. And the Central Valley, along with AZ, NM, and TX have a huge problem with transporting guns to Mexico where they are in a civil war.

Those guns were probably going to the drug cartels in Mexico.

So what happened to the submachine guns?

> Took a peek once I was out of sight, and it was definitely submachine guns

Can't you order that stuff over the mail in the US?

You can buy functional relics that are well over 30 years old if they were registered before they were banned, and you're gonna need to be federally licensed to possess them, and you're gonna be paying in the 5 digit range for the privilege. Needless to say, these weren't those.

For a firearm purchased by mail from another state they have to be shipped to a federally licensed dealer and the transaction has all the same requirements as if you were just buying from the dealer in person.

There's lots more details than that, but it isn't a free for all.

No. An example of a submachine gun is the ubiquitous H&K MP5 [0]. It cannot be easily purchased (legally) because it is a fully automatic weapon, meaning that it has a setting where pulling the trigger once can fire > 1 bullets, and it's less than 26 inches in length, classifying it as a short barreled rifle (SBR).

A MP5 can be legally owned, with a few caveats:

* It must have been manufactured and registered with the ATF as a machine gun prior to 1986. Guns meeting this criteria are fairly rare and very expensive. I don't know the price for a registered MP5, but I would guess > $20000.

* You must apply for and receive a special approval to purchase a machine gun.

* You must apply for and receive a special approval to purchase a SBR.

However, a variety of companies make semi-auto (one trigger pull = one bullet) MP5 clones that can be purchased more easily. Clones are sometimes built with an extended barrel so they are not considered a SBR and can be treated like any normal rifle. A common strategy is to hide the extra barrel beneath a fake non-functional suppressor [1]. Alternatively some are made as SBRs for people who are willing to get the SBR approval.

[0]: http://discovermilitary.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/mp5.j...

[1]: http://mfiap.com/images/F30028878.jpg

This kind of information is very useful to know - even if you firmly believe regulation of automatic firearms is a good idea. I'm not a gun enthusiast, but this summary helps shed some light on a debate many folks are badly informed on. Thanks.

Thanks for the thorough answer! My impression was largely based on Gus van Sant's movie "Elephant", where the boys bought some real badass looking rifles over the mail.

Interesting. Well, I don't know what the movie portrays, but there are two ways that I know of to legally order a gun and have it delivered to your door (though I doubt either is exciting enough for a movie).

* You can get a Curio & Relic (C&R) license from the ATF which is basically a collectors license. It applies to eligible guns (i.e. not machine guns or SBRs) > 50 years old such as [0]. When you do an online/mail order the seller will require you to send a copy of your C&R license before shipping.

* Some guns aren't legally considered to be firearms by the ATF. This primarily (only?) applies to replicas of black powder guns [1][2].

Any other purchase must be sent to a licensed dealer, and when you pick it up from them you'll do the same paperwork as when purchased directly off their shelves.

[0]: https://www.classicfirearms.com/m9130-hex-receiver-russian-m...

[1]: http://www.cabelas.com/product/shooting/black-powder/traditi...

[2]: http://www.cabelas.com/product/shooting/black-powder/black-p...

Semi-automatic firearms are perfectly legal in all 50 states. (With some restrictions on barrel length, magazine size, accessories, etc)

Fully automatic weapons are more heavily regulated. Large taxes, permits, etc.

You can definitely order a black powder pistol (and the caps and balls and powder) through the mail, no background check required (I guess some states do have restrictions, mine apparently did not).

I ordered one years ago and the delivery service left it with my neighbor who's id they did not check.

http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=735152&...

Granted it's not a sub-machine gun and takes a bit to load but it is a repeating firearm every bit as deadly as one that uses conventional shells.

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