Regarding "social shaping":
$200 tax in 1934 for fully automatic weapons. The equivalent tax is $3,360 in 2012. It guaranteed the average working man could never legally acquire a fully automatic weapon.
Do you really think that a tax of that size is going to
encourage Class 3 gun ownership? It's a good thing the currency has been devalued so badly that it's
only $200.
I find even the $200 obnoxious and it discourages me from ever owning such weapons.
* I used this conversion website to convert $200 in 1934 money to value in 2012.
http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/
Their results:
If you want to compare the value of a $200.00 Commodity in 1934 there are four choices. In 2011 the relative:
real price of that commodity is $3,360.00
real value of that commodity is $7,680.00
labor value of that commodity is $8,030.00(using the unskilled wage) or $10,200.00(using production worker compensation)
income value of that commodity is $18,500.00