Should civilians be allowed to own machine guns?

[Torie]

Unless you think (erroneously) that it is protected by the Second Amendment, why should any civilian own a machine gun? Yeah, it is nice that there are tight restrictions, but there is no upside to folks owning such a weapon, to offset the downside (e.g., with more such weapons extant in the civilian population, the odds go up they might fall into the wrong hands, or perhaps the once fine chap who legally obtained such a weapon, later has a nervous breakdown or goes psychotic, among other things), so my answer is no. Is it legal anywhere to hunt with a machine gun? I suspect not.

[Torie]

Does a "semi-automatic AR-15" fall into the category of a "machine gun?" I don't pretend to know that much about guns. To me a machine gun is a gun that spews out a lot of bullets in very rapid succession, like I see in war movies. I don't have an informed opinion as to where exactly the line should be drawn as to what guns should be legal to own, and what guns should not be legal to own. It needs to be drawn somewhere obviously.