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Politics : The Trump Presidency -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (58558)	3/1/2018 10:18:32 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 362054

There never were many of them out there except under the direct control of the military. Also they are big. Much harder to move and hide, not the best weapons for criminals. If they would be very effective for criminals in most situations they probably would have found a way to have them. You have a very different situation with the three or four hundred million more ordinary firearms out there. Much easier to hide and move, already out there in huge numbers, less expensive even before any restrictions. Also, there doesn't appear to be enough demand to support a significant black market. Exactly. Few really want those weapons. Maybe gun enthusiasts as historical pieces or to have fun shooting out in the desert or something (and some places have them available for you to do just that, just as some places have tanks you can drive but you don't see them being used in crime too much either), but criminals don't really want them, at least not enough to deal with the cost (even without the restrictions they would be expensive), and hassle or such weapons. And that is despite the fact that criminals and mass shooters loved them when they were cheap and easily available. They were never cheap. And when they were easier to get, criminals and mass shooters and terrorists almost never used them (the main terrorist threat before restrictions where placed on them where anarchists who used bombs more often, and the KKK who used fire, beatings, and more ordinary firearms). They are a poor to horrible weapon for most criminal purposes. Even when they could be useful (say a massive attack on a rival gang), they would be easier for law enforcement to track. For a mass shooter they could be effective in certain situations (they could have been used in the Vegas shooting), but carrying one of those up to a school or in to a theater or workplace is kind of obvious and you can't chase people down with them too well.