r/gunpolitics • u/clawzord25 • Jul 19 '25

Question Should the Hughes Amendment be repealed? (DISCUSSION)

As someone who enjoys the 2nd Amendment and is an advocate for it, I found myself thinking about the implications that honest-to-god machine guns would have on public safety.

I know that's quite rich and that this concern has been brought up a lot in the past to stifle the rights of gun owners. Still, I really do worry that machine guns, particularly full-power rifle cartridge machine guns like the PKM and M240, being cheaper and more available to purchase for bad actors, could cause catastrophic damage to the public and LEOs.

Semi-automatic weapons require reloading, and there's a realistic cap on their fire rate due to that necessity. Even if someone has an FRT or Bump Stock, the gun's effective rate of fire is nowhere near its theoretical cyclic rate.

In contrast, dedicated machine guns have a higher capacity for ammunition with belts, which means they can sustain their firepower for longer. Additionally, they fire much more powerful cartridges.

7.62x54R and 7.62x51 are not intermediate by any means. They are capable of penetrating body armour and can pass through multiple human bodies with ease.

Imagine a hostage situation where LEO has to storm an entrenched PKM nest or a guy setting up an M240 and hella belts of ammunition in a kill zone like the 2017 Las Vegas Shooting.

It would be disastrous.

So I want to hear what your thoughts are on allowing machine guns to be in circulation once again. Is it worth the risk we take as a people, or should some category of weapons stay off-limits to a vast majority of the general public?

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u/B1893 Jul 19 '25 edited Jul 19 '25

I'll be honest dude, bringing up PKM nests and M240s with hella belts seems to be the same kind of fear mongering that we saw from anti-gunners with the HPA, which they're doing today with the "tax break."

Beltfeds are rare as fuck now because they were expensive as fuck before '86.

If the Hughes Amendment is repealed, they're still going to be expensive as fuck - and crime guns generally aren't expensive. 

An M240 postie is still like a $15,000 gun, (edit) if the Hughes Amendmentwas repealed, it would probably cost us plebs the same $15,000 (/edit) - I really don't see many people buying them for crimes.

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u/IDrinkMyBreakfast Jul 19 '25

You have to be a dealer to get a postie. For plebs like me, we’re talking a touch more

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u/B1893 Jul 19 '25 edited Jul 19 '25

Yeah, I know you have to be a dealer to get a postie.

But with an M240 postie being 15,000, it would likely cost us plebs the same 15,000 if the Hughes Amendment was repealed. 

Edited because of fat thumbs and tiny buttons...

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u/IDrinkMyBreakfast Jul 19 '25

I’d buy one just for boasting rights. The ammo though. Maybe shoot it a few times before I go broke. My wife is already upset at how much ammo I buy, this’d put her over the edge