Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Machine guns are the most restricted breed of firearm out there. It’s so bad that most of us will never own one, no matter how much we might wish we could.
The idea behind the initial restrictions was specifically to keep them out of criminal hands. The mob was all over and heavily armed in those days, so the thought was that if you restricted such weapons, the bad guys couldn’t get them.
Sound familiar?
And yet almost 90 years later, we still get stories like these.
A man was arrested after allegedly running from police and being found with a machine gun and illegal substances, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Deontae Jackson, 22, was arrested on the following charges:
- Possession of machine gun
- Two counts of resisting law enforcement
- Driving while suspended
- Unlawful carrying of a handgun
- Possession of cocaine
- Possession of marijuana
…
When officers took Jackson into custody, they found a Glock handgun on top of the trash in the dumpster.
Officers identified an aftermarket device on the handgun that enabled it to fire fully automatic.
A previous conviction prohibits Jackson to possess any kind of handgun, reports said.
So a convicted felon allegedly had a handgun with a full-auto switch that turned it into a machine gun.
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
Let’s note that this isn’t some high-level cartel enforcer. This is a street punk who ran from the cops because he was also carrying drugs. Since it doesn’t look like he was charged with intent to distribute, it doesn’t even look like he was dealing.
Again, a street punk, and yet he had a weapon legally classified as a machine gun.
Yet you and I can’t get one.
Oh, in theory, you can still buy a class 3 weapon, but after the ’84 ban, the prices are so high you could buy a house for the same amount of money as you’d spend on many of those weapons. That means they’re still out of the reach of most folks.
But if you don’t care about the law, you can either buy or make a device that you can slap on your Glock that will turn it into a machine gun.
Look, the idea behind gun control may sound plausible, but stuff like this illustrates just how wrongheaded it is. Gun control laws didn’t keep the Glock out of his hand (allegedly) and they damn sure didn’t stop him from putting a full-auto switch on it.
As a result, he outguns the police and the law-abiding citizens who he may have sought to prey on. I mean, I can’t lawfully own a full-auto switch and convert any of my guns into machine guns. Not without a whole lot of hassle to be licensed to do such things, which isn’t likely to happen.
But this turdnugget allegedly could.
That’s what really happens with gun control. It puts things out of our hands but the criminals still obtain them as often as they want.
That’s especially true in the era of the 3D printer. People can make what they want regardless of the laws.
Unsurprisingly, some people think the answer to this is more laws, but we see here how well that works.