Wal-Mart Sells Machine Guns!

[Straw Man]

13. Yes.

Does it really matter if they are technically not machine guns? You think the scary thing is the nomenclature?

Yes. It does matter. It's not the nomenclature, but the function that matters. Machine guns are fully automatic. This makes them more difficult to fire controllably. It means that they are not viable for hunting or self-defense: it's difficult to control exactly where your rounds are going, which is acceptable on a dedicated range or on the battlefield but nowhere else.

Machine guns are also tightly controlled. You cannot buy them at Wal-Mart. You never could, and you will never be able to.

Semi-auto rifles, which is what he's looking at, have been on the US consumer market since 1906. They are frequently used in hunting and target shooting. The fact that these are black and have pistol grips doesn't make them functionally different from what Browning put on the market just after the start of the 20th century.