If you are a law maker and you make a statement about banning full-auto (or automatic) guns or use terms like military-style weapons, then you are an unqualified idiot. You don't get to make laws about firearms anymore, you need to go home and cry. You can come back and make laws about firearms after you go and buy one of these guns that you are trying to ban, because maybe then you'll actually learn something. Don't talk to me about assault weapons, because you don't know what they are. Leave gun laws to people who know something about them. Just stop, because you embarrass yourself and everyone around you.
If you are not a lawmaker, but you are calling for a ban on full-auto guns, then I can list everything you know about guns: nothing. You are an idiot. You need to go talk to someone who owns a gun and ask them questions about what it's like to be a gun owner, and they will nicely explain to you why you're an idiot.
Now that I got that out of my system, let's talk about full-auto guns. Politicians are purposefully slippery on this particular topic and the language that they use. They use words like automatic, fully-automatic, or fully-semi-automatic to try and confuse people about what guns they are talking about. If you think you can go out and walk into any gun store and buy a gun that fires more than one bullet each time you pull the trigger, you're wrong. Anyone referring to a gun with a 'high rate of fire' means they are referring to a full-auto firearm. Guns with any rate of fire are full-auto. The first thing you should know is that when politicians talk about things like assault weapons bans they are NOT talking about full-auto guns, and here is why.
National Firearms Act
Legally speaking, a full-auto firearm is classified as a machinegun. Machineguns were regulated at the highest level in 1934 under the National Firearms Act, or NFA for short. Under the NFA any firearm classified as a machinegun had a separate application process that had to be approved by the federal government. This law was designed to make it incredibly difficult to purchase certain firearms and other devices like suppressors (silencers). This law is still in effect today. The application process requires you to submit finger prints, a passport photo, an application signed by a chief law enforcement officer (local Sheriff or Police Chief), a background check, a $200 tax stamp, and an FBI Investigation. Waiting periods for this process to take place take up to a year. The $200 tax stamp was above and beyond any sales tax you'd pay for the gun and was prohibitively expensive, it's equivalent to about a $3,000 tax in today's currency. Today, there are only 12 ATF reviewers that process these applications in the entire country. Make no mistake, this law is there to prevent people from buying certain guns and it is very effective at that.
Gun Control Act of 1968
In 1968 the National Firearms Act was expanded under The Gun Control Act of 1968, or GCA. The 1968 amendment to the law added additional categories to the NFA called Destructive Devices. The Act also expanded the definition of a Machinegun to the modern day definition which is this:
Any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger
The frame or receiver of any such weapon
Any part designed and intended solely and exclusively or combination of parts designed and intended for use in converting a weapon into a machinegun, or
Any combination of parts from which a machinegun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession or under the control of a person.Firearm Owners' Protection Act
In 1986 another law was passed called the Firearm Owners' Protection Act that altered the GCA and added additional provisions about silencers by making parts of the silencer equally restricted. A New Jersey lawmaker named William J. Hughes amended this with the following language, this is known as the Hughes Amendment and has been in effect since May 19th, 1986:
(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), it shall be unlawful for any person to transfer or possess a machinegun.
This subsection does not apply with respect to—
(A) a transfer to or by, or possession by or under the authority of, the United States or any department or agency thereof or a State, or a department, agency, or political subdivision thereof; or
(B) any lawful transfer or lawful possession of a machinegun that was lawfully possessed before the date this subsection takes effect.This law effectively banned any new machineguns from ever being purchased again by a civilian. So, the reason why anyone calling for a full-auto ban is an idiot is because full-auto guns are already banned and have been since 1986.
In case you're still confused. This is what a real machinegun looks like:
You can read more about the history of the NFA on the ATF's website.
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