Reply #177: Not particularly easy, and they were modified in 1986 to make it even harder.

[benEzra]

How easily can AR-15's be modified?

Not particularly easy, and they were changed in 1986 to make full auto conversion even harder.

In pre-1986 AR-15's, the lower receiver (main body of the gun, to which the barrel, stock, and grip attach) was the same dimensions as an M16 receiver, but the trigger parts were different, with the AR-15 lacking the parts that allow an M16 to fire itself repeatedly when the trigger is held down. The key part necessary to convert a pre-1986 AR-15 to full auto (what was known as a drop-in auto sear, or DIAS) were tightly controlled by the BATFE (10-year felony) and difficult to construct, but if you were somehow able to get hold of one, you could install it in the receiver with a drill press and hand tools, and the restricted DIAS plus a few M16 parts would create a full auto.

In 1986, a law called the McClure-Volkmer Act was passed, which among other things required all civilian guns to be difficult to convert to full auto, and reclassified easy-to-convert civilian guns into the restricted machineguns. Because of concerns about the black market availability of drop-in auto sears, civilian AR-15's were redesigned to have different receiver dimensions than an M16, so that a DIAS would not work in the gun even if you somehow got your hands on one. So post-1986 AR's are as difficult to convert as any other civilian semiauto.

Additionally, there are many guns available to civilians that fire multiple rounds with a trigger squeeze -- how are those not fair game for utterly reasonable gun strictures?

They are fair game, and they were already restricted 75 years ago and banned 23 years ago.

The first law restricting automatic and burst-capable firearms was the National Firearms Act of 1934. This law made it a 10-year Federal felony to possess any machinegun without Federal authorization, the gun had to be registered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, your local chief law enforcement officer had to sign off on the application, you couldn't take the gun out of state without permission, they can only be transferred through specially licensed dealers, etc.

Then, in 1986, the Hughes Amendment to the McClure-Volkmer Act closed the automatic weapons registry to new civilian guns, thereby completely banning the manufacture of new automatic or burst-capable weapons for the civilian market; all post-1986 automatic weapons are restricted to police/military and their suppliers, no exceptions.

There are still a handful of pre-1986 machineguns in the hands of wealthy collectors, but I think only two or three have been used in a murder in the last 75 years, and one of those was by a police officer. A pre-1986 full auto M16 now costs $17,000 to $75,000 depending on rarity and collectibility.

Here is a FAQ on the National Firearms Act as it now stands, if you're interested.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/usr/wbardwel/public/nfalis...

In addition to restricting machineguns and burst-capable weapons, the National Firearms Act also restricts guns over .50 caliber, sound suppressed ("silenced") firearms, sawed off rifles and shotguns, disguised firearms (cane guns, cell phone guns), hand grenades, bombs, rocket launchers/bazookas, grenade launchers, etc. Restricted weapons are controlled under the very tight Title 2 of the NFA, while ordinary civilian guns,including AR-15's and such, are controlled under Title 1 (which are the laws that govern purchases from your local gun store).

All guns that fire multiple rounds with a single trigger squeeze are controlled under the very strict Title 2 provisions of the NFA (including the 1986 ban), and possession outside of a police/military context without Federal authorization is an automatic 10-year felony.

As for pistols causing more mayhem - well, I've always said, keep the hunting rifles, but get the pistols off the street.

Any pistols on the street in the hands of criminals are being carried illegally, and can be taken away and the criminals prosecuted; concealed carry without a state-issued license is a crime in all but 2 states (Vermont and Alaska) and in many of those it is a felony.

As far as hunting rifles, a ban on handguns and nonhunting rifles would ban every gun my wife and I own. Like most U.S. gun owners, my wife and I are both nonhunters (only ~1 in 5 U.S. gun owners hunts, per Census Bureau and hunting license data).