The responses here show a remarkable defensiveness on the part of ‘automatic rifle advocates.’ So, the NRA never advocated murdering anyone — and drug dealers never advocate overdosing or stealing to pay for drugs. So not all soldiers will commit suicide — surely true — but the number one cause of firearm deaths are self-inflicted wounds. So, a bolt action rifle could do the same — see Dallas 1963 for definitive proof — but in Dallas 2016 a military trained, firearms expert didn’t choose a bolt action rifle for his killing spree, and he had good reasons for that.

Listen, people enjoy all sorts of weird sh** for a whole bunch of psychological and psychosexual reasons. And I’m good with that for the most part. But the FDR administration was right to ban machine guns, as the Australian government was right to ban ‘military style’ rifles. But if we’re not going to ban them, register them, license the users, and require liability insurance — just like cars.

Use the license and registration fees, and a surcharge on the insurance, to help fund single payer health insurance, and mental health services.