Quote:
Originally Posted by mack59
Yes, a lot of people say they want or even would get full auto, (particularily on gun forums which provides a skewed sample)
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I agree with you and further say that is why political leverage to repeal Hughes is not there and not likely to be. I equate attitudes towards gun rights on TFL like abortion rights on the Planned Parenthood website. Sometimes it approaches fantasy in it's extremes.
I think a lot of gun owners would not buy FA because of other reasons besides fear. I don't believe FA has EVER been popular with the great majority of the gun owning public EVEN before the NFA. In 1986 the registry (according to Al Norris) had about 100K of legal owners. Compare that to maybe 90 MILLION gun owners and that is a drop in the bucket. Others argue that more would own them if all restrictions were lifted and I agree more would but I see no evidence that say 20% of all gun owners would buy them.
IMO the public in general and many gun owners think FA was designed and intended for military applications (area denial and fire suppression) and are inappropriate for self defense and hunting and belong mostly in the "different world" of hobbyists and collectors. As stated before the militia justification is seen by most as nutty.
Sure the public is afraid of them being legally widespread but they also see no practical need for them either.