Registration of automatic weapons is like building half a wall to keep the weather out, half a dam to stop a river. It may look good, but it is not so effective. It is not effective because of what was done, but rather, because of what was not done. Why do people ever build half a wall? because half is easy and half is hard. Disarming honest people by law is easy, disarming criminals by law is hard.
Crime with long guns are indeed rare,
(1) partly because fully automatic weapons are hard to control, and in a fighting situation you can’t miss fast enough to win.
(2) partly because fully automatic weapons use ammunition at a horrific rate, and in a crime situation, you have to move to keep the law from catching you.
You are right, I was thinking of the LA robbery, which failed, but there were indeed many crimes committed on that day. Bonny and Clyde had a fully automatic BAR that was cut down, which they obtained at some time from a National Guard armory, but they died in 1934. I also recall the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) used some fully automatic weapons, and no, my understanding is they were not registered. People who use fully automatic weapons to commit crimes normally collect a lot of attention quickly and are quickly put down. Needless to say, after a criminal organization uses fully automatic weapons, a police officer or fireman will normally not endanger themselves to extend first aid.
Since guns are 14th century technology, the only way you can deny guns to criminals is to make the world over in the likeness of the 13th century. I am opposed to that, as would anyone with a passing familiarity of the Froissart Chronicles.
From a purely mechanical point of view it is easier to make a fully automatic weapon than it is to make a semiautomatic weapon. Most fully automatic weapons work by disabling the sear that prevents the hammer/striker from falling as the weapon goes back into battery. Remove or tamper with the sear, and you have a fully automatic weapon. If the sear fails, from tampering or from wear, and you have an automatic weapon. The ATF loves to prosecute honest people who, through no fault of their own, have a sear failure. It is safer than going after real criminals.
A double barrel shotgun with 3 inch chambers can fire 50 each .28 caliber (#1 buck shot) projectiles with two pulls of a trigger. I select #1 shot as my example because it is the smallest that will normally penetrate a human through and through. That is more holes in a target than you can get in an equivalent time with a 30 round magazine.
I am also opposed to denying arms to honest people on moral grounds. It is morally wrong to put obstacles to honest people that do not hinder criminals.
Hope that clears things up.
In the main, yes it does. I find that we are much in agreement.
Regards,
GtG