There is absolutely no reason that any civilian should have access to any type of assault weapon/fully automatic weapon, period. I have no problem as such, with hunters having shotguns and "normal, responsible" people being allowed to have hand guns for recreation and personal protection. Obviously (and I don't have the solution) the checks for the purchase and ownership have got to be tightened down somehow. As I said on "the really interesting thread" yesterday, I'm getting concerned about gun crime issues down here. I love the US but it bothers me that every single day on our local news the stories are all about gun crime and only yesterday I had a talk with my daughter about whether or not she would feel safer packing. Thankfully she made it easy for me by saying she didn't really want one for protection. I work in the hood fairly often and have never had a problem but gun crime can occur anywhere nowadays and I am seriously considering it. If I do get one I'm sure I'd catch a shitload of flack on here but it's easy to judge people when you're living in a pretty much gun crime free country like England and not in a place like I am where you can be a victim at any time.
This is a wonderful country but gun crime is my biggest concern here. The rest of the world think America is like the Wild West and we all go around shooting everybody, it's not and we don't and for all the concern everyone has about gun crime, believe me, nobody is as concerned as we are.