To circumvent the significant restrictions on machine guns, the gun industry has marketed devices that can be attached to semi-automatic firearms and accelerate the weapon’s rate of fire to rates approaching automatic machine gun fire. As of 2020, the national registry of machine guns contained registrations for 726,951 machine guns. As a result, a substantial number of machine guns are still in circulation. This continuous-fire feature makes machine guns hazardous to the general public and appropriate for use only by the military.įederal law prohibits the possession of newly manufactured machine guns, but permits the transfer of machine guns lawfully owned prior to May 19, 1986, if the transfer is approved by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives. Machine guns are fully automatic firearms that continue to fire bullets as long as the trigger is depressed and ammunition is available. On the other hand, federal law treats fifty caliber rifles no differently from other long guns, as do all but three states and the District of Columbia. Machine guns have been comprehensively regulated at the federal level since the 1930s, and the manufacture or importation of new machine guns for sale to civilians has been banned since 1986. Machine guns and fifty caliber rifles are highly destructive weapons appropriate only for military use.

These destructive, deadly weapons of war can wreak havoc with a single pull of the trigger, and thorough regulation of them is essential to keep people safe. Military-grade firearms, including machine guns and 50 caliber rifles, should not be in our homes, on our gun ranges, or on our hunting grounds.

Machine guns, 50 caliber weapons, and bump stocks are extremely dangerous and have no place in civilian hands.

Gun calibre meaning