[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Originally Posted by Carl in Tampa

Fully automatic firearms are not banned in the United States. There are millions of personally owned fully automatic firearms here.

Their ownership and transfer of ownership is closely regulated. In 1934 the National Firearms Act was passed in response to the use of automatic weapons by criminals. The act imposed a $200 "transfer tax" on the transfer of ownership of fully automatic firearms and provided for registration of their ownership. There are too many other facets to the act to discuss them all here, but the fact is that there are millions of legally owned fully automatic weapons in the U.S.

In addition to the "gangster" style weapons of the 1930s, many fully automatic "war trophies" were brought into the country after WWII. They generally fell through the cracks with regard to being detected, so several decades ago the government declared an "amnesty" and allowed all holders of fully automatic weapons of any kind an opportunity to register and retain them.

That is why there are so many of them still available. To obtain one you would have to pay both the astronomical price the current owner would want and the $200 transfer tax to the government, as well as registering your ownership with the government.

And, even more to the point, they are part of this discussion because the OP originally called the pistol he found to be an "automatic" and someone else pointed out that it was probably a semi-automatic.

And, further although they are held illegally, there are many unregistered fully automatic firearms still held and being used by the criminal element in our country.

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That is true. I shouldn't have said it that way. There are some circumstances where private citizens are allowed to own fully automatic weapons but it is extremely difficult and as you point out, expensive to qualify for one.

I don't know how many illegal ones there are, but what law is going to change that?