5 machine guns for your last minute Christmas Shopping

[BrianB]

Mine is a registered disconnector. With the M2, a part has to be the numbered part, not the trigger housing for some reason.

It was pricy, but I got it during one of those rare moments where there was a fair amount of disposable income (I had just sold a house).

Most of the M2 "machine guns" are registered under the definition of machine gun that is "a part or combination of parts designed and intended solely for the purpose of converting a firearm into a machine gun". Same as the drop-in auto sears, lightning links, HK sears, etc. As I understand it there is no difference in the receiver of an M1 vs. M2, so the frame or receiver usually isn't the "machine gun".

[AFJuvat]

Most of the M2 "machine guns" are registered under the definition of machine gun that is "a part or combination of parts designed and intended solely for the purpose of converting a firearm into a machine gun". Same as the drop-in auto sears, lightning links, HK sears, etc. As I understand it there is no difference in the receiver of an M1 vs. M2, so the frame or receiver usually isn't the "machine gun".

Correct, the receivers are identical. However, if a receiver is stamped 'M2', it is legally a machine gun even as a stripped receiver. Starting in 1945, the roll stamp on the receiver stopped at ' U.S. Carbine Cal. 30 M ' to allow the individual receiver to be stamped with a 1 or a 2.

Further muddling the mix, many receivers stamped 'M1' were converted and registered as a machine gun, which makes that particular receiver legally a machine gun even if there are no MG parts on it, because according to the ATF, "Once a MG, always a MG".

Making the overall situation even MORE confusing, many of the parts that are unique to the M2 were installed on semi-auto M1 carbines at the factory: hammer, sear, slide, stock, trigger housing, magazine catch, and sometimes even the disconnector, leaving only the selector switch and the disconnector arm as the only pieces that kept if from being a MG.

[pod]

I hope to see the day when the Hughes Amendment (which created the machine gun manufacturing ban of 1986) is struck down by SCOTUS. I think that is the only way it will ever go away. No Congress is ever going to deal with the "optics" of "legalizing machine guns" (which is how it would be decried in the press).

Now that the 2nd amendment is recognized as an individual right, I would think that it would be difficult to sustain a ban on the manufacture of the very machine guns the militia arguably needs most (assuming a Supreme Court composed of at least 5 honest, intelligent people). Given the language in Heller we are stuck with the assumption that machine guns can be regulated, and will almost certainly always be "NFA items" that require registration - but I don't think that a ban on their manufacture for civilian ownership can stand. We'll see.

Suppressors stand a good chance of being stricken from the NFA. SBRs & SBSes too.

With the latter, it's almost ridiculous now since there's so many braces out there that do pretty much what a stock does, and are ATF-approved. I think even the ATF is in on the joke as long as you don't bug them too much, i.e. they totally f--ked us with the "shouldering" question. I think at SHOT 2015, someone asked them about the shouldering bit, and they specifically said they made the ruling because too many idiots were asking about it.

MGs are the holy grail though. I don't see them being taken off the NFA in the near future. However, I do see a fair chance Hughes will be repealed, especially considering it was put in place under questionable circumstances to begin with. So you'll be able to purchase new MGs, but it'll be an NFA procedure.

However, there's a few hurdles there which require careful operation. I don't think any politician wants to be the guy who "legalized" machine guns. Repealing Hughes, whether it's at the judicial or legislative level, will have to be snuck in there somehow. Much like Hughes was to begin with. Repealing Hughes is gonna have to be a backroom deal.

Think about it. The non-gun public regularly confuses ARs with M4A1s. The unschooled masses think I own several machine guns. The unschooled masses think suppressor ownership is patently illegal. They think my M4Gery with a can is an assassin's weapon. If they get wind that "gun nuts" want to lift restrictions on MG ownership, al hell is gonna break loose.

We must be cautious.

That being said, to keep it on topic, my MG wish list would be:

(all available at dealernfa.com if any of you gets drunk and decides to get me a nice gift )

Colt AR15A2 converted by Wilson Arms: Because I just want the lower, really so I can put my own uppers on it.
HK53
M10 with the Lage upper
MP5
G3