New Machine Guns Can Be Bought Again
In nearly people'south minds, machine guns are the province of wars and gangster movies. But for some hobbyists, they're coveted collectors' items – albeit heavily regulated, expensive and difficult to come by.
On a blustery fall mean solar day at Blackness's Creek Public Shooting Range in Ada County, Idaho, an arsenal'south been lined up: Included are representatives from just about every major state of war the U.South. fought (and a few it didn't.) Beyond the range, in the sagebrush desert of Southern Idaho, a scattering of hapless orange gourds await a solemn fate.
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Boise State Public Radio
"Pumpkins are pretty tough. You have to shoot them a lot before they beginning coming apart," said Scott Pingree, a long-time fellow member of the Idaho Automatic Weapons Collectors' Association (IAWCA), with a smiling."Who would accept thought?"
Pingree and dozens of his beau IAWCA members are gathered for the group's annual Swell Pumpkin Fun Shoot. Information technology is exactly what it sounds like: members haul out their favorite prized automatic weapons and take aim at the autumn fruit.
IAWCA champions collecting automated weapons — guns that proceed firing until the shooter releases the trigger or the magazine runs out of ammunition — every bit a hobby. Its members are part of an unusual subculture of gun collectors.
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Boise State Public Radio
According to the Agency of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), as of 2017, there were 630,000 machine guns in the U.S. That, withal, is a fraction of the roughly 400 one thousand thousand guns in America.
So how does anyone come to ain one of these guns?
Automatic weapons are governed past legislation from a bygone era, unfamiliar to many, one of the last vestiges of stringent federal gun control.
Specifically, the 1934 National Firearms Human action (NFA), which was prompted by rampant gangland violence oft perpetrated past the likes of Al Capone with the Thompson submachine gun. Yous may know the Thompson by its nickname, the "Tommy gun", known for its distinctive round drum mag.
It takes a lot to become your hands on one of these guns.
"These weapons entail the necessity for a background check," said David Nielsen, an attorney specializing in firearms issues and president of the IAWCA. "[The] FBI looks at you, you have to ship in fingerprints and photographs, and y'all exercise a transfer taxation along with each weapon transaction costing $200."
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Boise State Public Radio
In other words, unlike most guns, you can't but evidence upwards at Walmart and take one home.
It can take close to a twelvemonth to get approved to purchase each machine gun.
Plus, because it has been illegal for civilians to buy new machine guns since 1986, only used guns are available on the market. That means it'due south non but a lengthy procedure, but an expensive ane.
"If you lot want a cheap hobby — I don't know — stay at abode," Pingree said.
Pingree'south not kidding.
A single machine gun frequently runs into the tens of thousands of dollars and that'due south before purchasing armament for the gun. That can run as high equally $v a round.
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Boise State Public Radio
Making new machine guns for civilians was all simply banned in 1986 as part of a compromise in the Firearms Owners' Protection Act. That's when prices for machine guns began to skyrocket.
Depending on how you look at it, the regulation of machine guns could either be a gilt standard for gun control or proof that responsible gun owners should be left solitary. Machine guns covered by the 1934 National Firearms Act take never been used in a mass shooting in America.
Howard Wolfe, who spent 30 years with the ATF, said function of the reason for that is the heavy scrutiny car gun owners receive from the government. These guns are the nigh heavily regulated, legally endemic weapons in the land.
Still, Wolfe thinks it would be impractical to exercise the same thing for far more numerous semi-automatic rifles, similar AR-15s.
"Back when the assail weapons ban was commencement proposed, there was talk of registering so-called assault weapons or and then-called semi-automatic assail weapons," he said. "And I remember existence in a coming together where the chief of the NFA co-operative at the fourth dimension said if nosotros added all semi-automated assault weapons to the NFA it would have the unabridged budget of the bureau to maintain that system."
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Boise Land Public Radio
Back at the IAWCA's annual pumpkin shoot, Pingree said some gun control advocates blame guns for the actions of a few bad actors. With more education, he says, they might have a more nuanced view.
"When you lot don't know, you imagine the worst well-nigh annihilation," says Pingree, "and plus, when yous get all the news that'southward all bad about an item or something has been misused, information technology automatically gets a label."
But most collectors at the Pumpkin Shoot seem more interested in explaining the scientific discipline and history of their guns than talking policy.
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Boise State Public Radio
The automobile guns they set up up include key examples of 20th Century machine gun design: from a 1939 Finnish model on skis,to a "Miami Vice"-era "Tommy gun"; to a Vietnam-era, belt-fed "pig" mounted on top of a similar vintage Ford 4X4.
That's part of what sets auto gun collectors autonomously from typical gun owners: they're not getting them primarily to shoot or for self-defense, but rather equally collector's items, according to David Yamane, a professor of sociology at Wake Forest Academy who studies American gun culture.
"[They] aren't getting them because they're high-tech military weapons. They're mostly getting them for historic purposes," he said. "So you'll find among people who collect motorcar guns a very passionate involvement in military history or the history of firearms technology itself."
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Boise Country Public Radio
Ken Jenkins counts himself among that group.
At the pumpkin shoot he was setting up a few of the couple dozen machine guns he has in his drove.
"I would say it'due south similar the confluence of where hydrocarbons and steel meet," he said.
He has a detailed history and mental manual ready for each. Jenkins says he especially likes tinkering with and keeping virtually lxxx-yr-old weapons in working lodge.
Guns & America is a public media reporting projection on the role of guns in American life.
Source: https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/news/2018-12-21/automatic-weapons-are-legal-but-it-takes-a-lot-to-get-one-of-the-630-000-in-the-u-s
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