Originally posted by dave_welch
Bombs are ordinance, not firearms. But, I can understand the confusion.

Also, Machine guns are inaccurate, and a waste of ammunition. The fire rate of your standard M-16 is 850 rounds per minute. A liberal figure, for one the common magazine capacity is 30. it's gonna take around 3 seconds to reload for most people familiar with the gun, and you'll have to reload 28 times in that minute just your 28 reloads will take quite a bit longer than a minute.

Machine guns aren't the "efficient killing machines" that people think they are. A standard Machine gun in the Military is the common heavy machine gun, it's a mounted weapon, too heavy to carry on your own. The ammo chain usually contains 100 rounds, after firing 200 rounds sustained fire, it is recommended that you change the barrel. Because a hot barrel can cause a variety of severe problems.

But, Machine guns aren't exactly illegal either, you can even legally own them in California.

As far as "designed for military use" that's a silly statement, most guns were designed for military use. Here are some common ones: Enfield .303, Springfield 03, Colt 1911, Beretta 9mm, Colt army and navy revolver, Winchester 1894. That's two common pistols, a lever action rifle, and two bolt action rifles. Want to know what weapon wasn't designed for Military use? AR-15, the civilian semi-auto version of the M-16. In fact, the AR-15 started out, as the M-16, and was redesigned for civilian use and dubbed the AR-15, by the way, the AR does not stand for "assault rifle", that's a common misconception, what does AR mean? It's an abbreviation for Armalite, the company that first produced it.