[Oldjarhead]

I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this silly question..... But:
Does anyone think there will ever be another "Automatic Weapon Amnesty" ?

 

[RuralTurtle]

I can't see the future, but my hunch is "not bloody likely."

 

[Clyde]

Well, certainly not as long as B. Hussein is President and the likes of Pelosi and the PRK, Chuckie Cheese et al (hoplophobes all) are in charge of things.

 

[John Sukey In Memoriam]

You would think that would make sense, but then we are talking about Dimocrats.
I just worry about what they will do to the already legally registered guns.
If I recall correctly, there have been only TWO incidents of a legally owned automatic weapon being used in a crime since 1933. One being a detective who picked up his Mac10 from the dealer and went home on his lunch hour to put it in his safe. He found his wife in bed with someone else and did both of them. Don't remember what the other one was of if there even was another one.

 

[thebohunk]

Forgive my ignorance, but what was the Automatic Weapons Amnesty?

 

[Harpers Ferry Arsenal]

Forgive my ignorance, but what was the Automatic Weapons Amnesty?

That was when the government decided to open the books and let all of the WW2 and Korean War vets who brought automatic weapons home from the war register them with no consequence. Thousands did, and their weapons were added to the NFA registry, making it legal to own and sell them.

Many others did not, and their bring-backs became contraband--illegal to possess and impossible to legally sell. Those guns turn up periodically in the veterans' estates, and they have to be turned over to the government and destroyed. Had they been registered, the next of kin would be getting a valuable gun or a nice nest egg if they elected to sell it.

I wouldn't see another amnesty coming, but if one did, it would almost certainly have to be limited to the vets who brought the guns home from WW2, Korea or Vietnam, and some provenance would have to be required. Difficult if not impossible in many cases, since so much time has passed. It would be nice to see those older vets able to own, shoot and sell their capture pieces. Write your congressman.

 

[Red Nine]

Obama will fix everything and he will ok the amnesty period!
Maybe in the future with a Republican progun President like Sarah Palin.

 

[Besa]

If there was a backlash after Obama of an extremely conservative and pro-gun president, do you think being allowed to own, register and sell newly made machine guns would be made legally possible again?

I'm sure it would also do good if someone would scrap that US made parts law for AKs etc, which seems pointless to me in the UK. Is there a good reason for it?

 

[amafrank]

If there was a backlash after Obama of an extremely conservative and pro-gun president, do you think being allowed to own, register and sell newly made machine guns would be made legally possible again?

I'm sure it would also do good if someone would scrap that US made parts law for AKs etc, which seems pointless to me in the UK. Is there a good reason for it?

That last question you posted there about the good reason is way out of line for reality. The gun laws in this country and every other one have little to do with any good reasoning or logic of any type. They are there strictly to control the law abiding and to minimize the threat of insurrection by an angry public who has been mislead or mistreated by a poor govt. It has been proven time after time by any statistics that reducing the ability of the public to possess firearms always increases crime. The left has to resort to sifting the statistics and including shootings in the line of duty by police in order to even show that gun crime exists. When a gent in your own country gets tossed in the hoosegow for defending his property and the true criminal goes free its obvious the UK has no reasoning in govt. So to answer your question on the imported parts BS, there is no good reason for it that applies realistically but from the standpoint of the politician who makes bad laws it prevents more guns from being built using imported parts which are much cheaper and more readily available. Are the US built versions less lethal? No. Are they less likely to be used in crime because they have US made parts rather than foreign? No again. Do they contribute in any real way to improving the US economy by keeping jobs in the US....? Well, no again.
Dang, there must be no good reason for it....

Pardon my slightly sarcastic way of putting all that but the basic answer is sometimes better when elaborated on.

Frank

 

[Sarge]

NOT correkt about the 68 amnesty! It had Nothing to do with veterans of any war.
It was a "general" amnesty where in ANYONE - including criminals - could register an unregistered full automatik weapon of any time period, no questions asked. At least a few VN bring back AKs were registered - I have one - and some M14s also.
The amnesty law passed by congress provided for a 60 day open amnesty registration period - atf in their infinate wisdom only allowed 30 days and did not widely advertise the amnesty. That is part of the reason so many did not register their weapons - they didn't, and some probably still dont, know about it.
It was for the month of Nov 68. I came in from a field exercise and saw the notice on the bullitin board of a friends barracks - first I had heard of it - on 3 Dez. I called the Fayetville batf office the next day and ask about it. I was allowed to register my 7 or 8 guns. The papers are dated Jan 69.
I also have a couple of guns I got from an air farce guy who had regisered his 3 after he returned from a 4 yr tour in Europe. He could prove he was out of the country when the amnesty period occured. They are date 1972.

We are still entitled to another 30 days by law, but it will never happen with the RHN and the dumbokraps in control!!!
Sarge

 

[cousinkix1953]

Well, certainly not as long as B. Hussein is President and the likes of Pelosi and the PRK, Chuckie Cheese et al (hoplophobes all) are in charge of things.

And they the ones who created crime infested sanctuary cities. The Brady Bunch is supporting left wing mayors and corrupt city councils; who won't even call ICE, when illegal aliens commit murders with illegally obtained guns. To hell with a 40 year old federal gun control law that is ignored over and over again. And more laws aren't gonna fix this problem either!

What good is the N.R.A., if they don't protest against this madness? It's time to target these corrupt anti-gun bastards who are killing people with this insane liberal politically correct garbage.

You don't even hear this from the likes of a Bill O'Reilly or Lou Dobbs who constantly rant about illegal immigration and the gang crimes associated with it. So-called media traditionalists (few are left on the airwaves) aren't much help either...

 

[Oldjarhead]

. He found his wife in bed with someone else and did both of them.

Is that against the law, John ????

 

[limpetmine]

Sort of but not.....

The 1968 Amnesty came about because a fellow had been convicted of a crime of possession of a NFA weapon, which he IIRC had acquired illegally. On appeal, his lawyer had found a discrepancy in the law, and due to a technicality, got his guy off. As a result of that, the ATF had to allow an amnesty so such a technicality could not be used as a defense in court again. They didn't do the amnesty because they "were good Joes". They did it because they had to. And the amnesty bill in congress now, (which is as good as dead) is very narrow in scope, to give amnesty to WWII vets and families in possession of historic arms.

That was when the government decided to open the books and let all of the WW2 and Korean War vets who brought automatic weapons home from the war register them with no consequence. Thousands did, and their weapons were added to the NFA registry, making it legal to own and sell them.

Many others did not, and their bring-backs became contraband--illegal to possess and impossible to legally sell. Those guns turn up periodically in the veterans' estates, and they have to be turned over to the government and destroyed. Had they been registered, the next of kin would be getting a valuable gun or a nice nest egg if they elected to sell it.

I wouldn't see another amnesty coming, but if one did, it would almost certainly have to be limited to the vets who brought the guns home from WW2, Korea or Vietnam, and some provenance would have to be required. Difficult if not impossible in many cases, since so much time has passed. It would be nice to see those older vets able to own, shoot and sell their capture pieces. Write your congressman.

 

[Besa]

That last question you posted there about the good reason is way out of line for reality. The gun laws in this country and every other one have little to do with any good reasoning or logic of any type. They are there strictly to control the law abiding and to minimize the threat of insurrection by an angry public who has been mislead or mistreated by a poor govt. It has been proven time after time by any statistics that reducing the ability of the public to possess firearms always increases crime. The left has to resort to sifting the statistics and including shootings in the line of duty by police in order to even show that gun crime exists. When a gent in your own country gets tossed in the hoosegow for defending his property and the true criminal goes free its obvious the UK has no reasoning in govt. So to answer your question on the imported parts BS, there is no good reason for it that applies realistically but from the standpoint of the politician who makes bad laws it prevents more guns from being built using imported parts which are much cheaper and more readily available. Are the US built versions less lethal? No. Are they less likely to be used in crime because they have US made parts rather than foreign? No again. Do they contribute in any real way to improving the US economy by keeping jobs in the US....? Well, no again.
Dang, there must be no good reason for it....

Pardon my slightly sarcastic way of putting all that but the basic answer is sometimes better when elaborated on.

Frank

Don't worry about sounding sarcastic. I frequently make similar rants against the Socialist UK government (I also know they have no reasoning).

I realise about the threat of insurrection being the real reason that governments ban guns, not "reducing crime". Exactly the same thing happened here in the UK after the handgun ban in 1996, gun crime has supposedly risen 75% since according to some sources. These handguns were only for sporting use also, we have never been allowed "self defense" handguns here in the UK. In fact, pepper spray and stun guns are also illegal here.

At 17 I am far too young to have had the chance to shoot any interesting firearms here in the UK, and I can see gun rights globally being slowly chipped away at. If the government here decided tomorrow that they were going to confiscate all legally held firearms, I'm sur ethey could quite easily do it.

 

[Harpers Ferry Arsenal]

And the amnesty bill in congress now, (which is as good as dead) is very narrow in scope, to give amnesty to WWII vets and families in possession of historic arms.

It's a start, and I'd be good with it as such. Vets deserve that.

But some guy that a vet or vet's kid illegally sold a F/A bring-back to for a few hundred bucks? Not so much.

 

[Oldjarhead]

Wouldn't any F/A 'bring back' be a "DEWAT" ?

 

[amafrank]

DEWAT is a term that describes a very specific firearm and is not a term for any bringback. It applied to the Deactivated WAr Trophies that were brought into the US between WWII and the amnesty/GCA68. The ATF required DEWATs to be registered during the amnesty in order to be legal because the receivers were still intact. The deactivation normally amounted to welding the chamber shut and on many guns replacing the barrel made it useable again. After 1968 there was no deactivated war trophy program so there were(are) no new dewats. We now have either deactivated or demilitarized firearms that are also known as torched, parts sets, dummy guns etc. They are not dewats.....

And for Limpet mine....the amnesty was not specifically aimed at any court case or cases. There were numerous cases where the ATU (now ATF) lost cases in court because the registration of an unregistered firearm was or could be used as a postive defense against prosecution for possession of an unregistered firearm. What that means is that prior to the gun control act of 1968 you could "find" an unregistered machinegun and then go register it by paying the tax and filling out the paperwork. They couldn't legally prosecute you for prior possession because your intent was to comply with the law. There were a number of cases in the 50's and 60's where atu tried to push it and one or more cases made it to the supreme court (if memory serves properly) The court said intent to register was a positive defense. ATU and evildoers in congress figured that they could nip this one off by making it illegal to register unregistered guns and added that little detail into the GCA 68 legislation. The amnesty had nothing to do with the court case other than as an added aside. The real reason was because so many new catagories were added that they had to allow registration of them, ie DD's, DEWATS and they added pretty much anything else to the registry that people wanted to register. Its my opinion that they didn't expect the flood they got of unregistered guns and thats why the 90 day amnesty became a 30 day amnesty. I've not seen any factual evidence to back that up but it seems likely.

Hope that helps clarify.
Frank

 

[BigBoy99]

Chances of Another Amnesty = Zero

Back in 1969, I was talking with a BATF agent friend (now deceased) about the chances of another amnsety. He said that during the 1968 Machine Gun Amnesty, they estimated that only 25% to 30% of all of the machine guns "out there" were registered. (I personally know of a person who brought back from the Marine Corp. a 3-digit serial number M14 that he didn't register becasue it was stolen Gov't. property and he was afraid that they would arrest him after he registgered it.) My agent friend also said that after the end of the 1968 Amnesty, people were be convicted on illegal possession of MGs and there would not be another amnesty. The people that were in jail for illegal possesion of MGs would have their attornies file claims, stating that they would have registered the illegal MG they had if there was a new amnesty but got caught before the amnesty had occurred and that their convictions should be overturned. This would create nightmares of legal battles and hassles. So to prevent this from happening, from the BATF point of view, another amnesty would never happen. Congress could change that but that would be like the proverbal snowball's chances in Hell!

Bill

 

[m1aman]

would the 68 amnesty have applied to someone who had secretly converted a semi auto gun to full auto?

 

[BigBoy99]

would the 68 amnesty have applied to someone who had secretly converted a semi auto gun to full auto?

Yes it would have applied but it is a moot point because the paperwork would have to have been submitted before the deadline expired in 1968.

Bill