FLORIDA READS THIS HEADLINE AND CHUCKLES

Virginia tops U.S. in machine gun owners

Key Qualifier: Officials could not provide data on how many of the weapons are privately owned.

(Thanks to jon harris)

Comments

[Dmentd]

Exactly how would I go about establishing a reasonable necessity to own a machine gun? I'm guessing that "I'll be very, very depressed if I can't have one." doesn't qualify.

[Jeff Meyerson]

Texans must be hanging their collective heads in shame today.

[Clankie]

Let's hope Virginia never finds out there isn't really a Santa Claus.

[Omniskeptic]

Texas, hell. Michigan out of the running? It must be because all our enthusiasts are in jail or moved to Virginia. Our run of the mill desperadoes usually make do with cheap handguns and, if they did have a machine gun, they wouldn't register it, for reasons too obvious to mention.

And a reasonable necessity to own one? How about squirrels? Or, perish the thought, woodchucks? A semi auto will do when there's only a few of them, but when hundreds charge at once, you really need that extra firepower. Why, I remember one time in the Ardennes ...

[Ankle]

Who cares about reasonable necessity? You don't need any "reasonable necessity" to own a ski boat, a house that's three times bigger than you need, etc.

[padraig]

Machine guns are just crutches for people with bad aim and/or inadequate reloading skills.

[Steve]

If we've learned nothing else from MANLY MEN such as Schwarzenegger or Stallone, it's that nobody ever hits anybody with a machine gun.
And one can easily outrun the shooters, in that the bullets always hit behind you.
Any large plant pots, however, are toast.

[Dmentd]

Steve, one you forgot: you can outrun a fireball in a tunnel.

[O the Umanity]

While I found the article somewhat interesting, I'm sure that many who actually read it to the end will still have some degree of misunderstanding of the major difference between the two extremes of "LEGAL (REGISTERED)" machine guns, and "ILLEGAL" machine guns ... therefore, this article is misleading to some degree, and the publisher, editor, and "reporter" should be subjected to a demonstration of the ordnance (not 'ordinance') described therein ...

Or not ... whutever ...

[MikeyVA]

HEY! We Virginians are proud of our Uzis and AK 47s.

Not that I personally have one or maybe two.

[Omniskeptic]

OtU, the fact that they felt compelled to define machine gun is telling. I bet the author had to google it.

[Jonadab]

Virginia has one of the largest collections of major military bases of any state, if not the largest. This is partly due to Virginia's proximity to the D.C. area. Being near the middle of the Atlantic coast (the direction whence came all the serious military threats, particularly during the early, formative portion of our nation's history) may also be relevant. It is not a coincidence that most of the really important Civil War battles were fought in Virginia and most of the rest were fought in one of the states that directly borders Virginia.