The American Spectator

However, his parting statement seems to suggest that in the U.S. it’s easy to legally own a fully-automatic weapon. Specifically, he wrote that in states where there are prohibitions against owning fully-automatic weapons “one can circumvent the prohibition by applying for a Class II Federal Firearm License” and as for other states, “one need only pony up the $200 transfer fee to satisfy the federal law.”

While that may indeed be accurate insofar as the letter of the law is written, the application thereof is entirely different. As I understand it, to acquire such the local law enforcement has to sign off on it. And doing so is entirely up to their discretion with no recourse should (when) they decline. Also, again, while I am no expert in these matters I suspect Mr. Gonzalez’s meant to refer to a Class III license (i.e. dealer) vs. Class II license (i.e. manufacturer).

p>In the end, none of this much matters as, despite Hollywood’s depictions to the contrary, in this country private ownership of fully automatic weapons is extremely rare. br> — R. Trotter br> Arlington, Virginia /p>