Bloomburg wants to ban machine guns

[gejohnston]

34. it was an economic ban

that was the goal of the $200 transference tax. The reason they did not ban them in the normal sense was because FDR's AG thought a ban would be struck down. It made the price of a Thompson, for example, from half the price of a new car to the price of a new car. Private ownership of machine guns and silencers were almost nonexistent anyway. Dillinger stole his from the Park County, Ohio, sheriff armory (it was on loan from a different county PD. They finally got it returned to them in 2004)
Of course that is before you get to the hoops to get one approved, letter signed from your CLEO, background check that takes about three months depending on the workload on that ATF section. No new machine guns can be registered for private citizens since 1986, so any private machine gun are antiques and very expensive. Any number you see mentioning the number of registered machine guns include those registered to police departments and non-functioning museum pieces. For some reason, the ATF will only give out the total number.
That is why I said Practically banned. None of which has anything to do with Bloomburg's ignorance or dishonesty.

FWIW, The only crime committed with a legal machine gun, that I'm aware of, was committed by a cop who murdered an informant with a SMG registered to the police dept. that employed him.