The problem that gun people have with gun control legislation and talk is that 90% of the time the people that make the laws dont know a damn thing about guns. These laws always single out the "scary" looking black guns that they all assume are full auto machine guns because they look similar to what the military uses. The reality is that it is illegal for any civilian to own a full auto weapon that was manufactured after 1986, and any weapon manufactured prior to 1986 requires a class 3 FFL which costs about 5 grand and 5 years worth of paperwork. Even with a class 3 FFL the cost is so high that it excludes 99% of the population. A vietnam era M16 (full auto AR-15) goes for about $25,000 and the ATF oversees the transfer of ownership.
So now you have people wanting to ban any semi automatic rifle with a detachable magazine, well there goes 75% of the .22 rifles that we grew up rabbit/squirrel hunting with. There goes ALL of the rifles that my hobby is built around. You end up with legislation like the early 90's AWB that effectively does nothing.
This is why gun owners start to go a little crazy when these conversations come up. As so many people in this thread have said, it is a social/economic problem and not a gun problem. So hopefully the anti gun folks will take some time to educate themselves and we can find a real solution to keep things like this happening.
