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Comment by tempfortwitt90 | Hacker News Reader

Automatic weapons aren't allowed and I haven't even ever seen one even while being around guns for 20 years casually but not THAT casually.

I suppose you mean semi automatic weapons.. which is basically 95% of guns in the homes of Americans.

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Auto's manufactured pre-1986 are legal for civilian ownership and use, assuming 1) you are legally allowed to own a firearm, 2) It is not illegal to own an automatic weapon in your state/jurisdiction 3) fill out the ATF Form 4, 4) pay the tax stamp and 5) you can afford a $20k+ gun and ammo. They aren't cheap because they are rare. There are approx 700k in existence in the US.

https://www.atf.gov/firearms/qa/may-machine-guns-be-transfer...

> Automatic weapons aren't allowed and I haven't even ever seen one even while being around guns for 20 years casually but not THAT casually.

Uh, yes they are, there are just more rules in place for them than other firearms. I've been around guns casually for a similar amount of time, and I've shot fully automatic weapons, and can see them pretty much any time I want at the local range. I don't even live in a "gun friendly" state.

To my understanding, Machine gun licenses are still sold in the US on extremely stringent terms.

Some, like the famous American 180 (Otherwise known as the Angry Bees) are grand-fathered in and allowed to be used.

You mean a class 3 transfer stamp. One can legally own a class 3 firearm in the US, yes. There are extra requirements for background checks, storage and so on. Machine guns in particular are expensive and fall out of most people's purchasing power. Ammunition is another thing entirely. For example, this Galil is 23k[1].

1. https://www.gunbroker.com/item/985068083

> You mean a class 3 transfer stamp.

You mean an NFA transfer tax stamp. Class 3 SOT is a status given to certain FFLs to allow them to deal in retail sales of NFA restricted items. It does not refer to the NFA items themselves.

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