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Silencers are the most popular NFA item a CA FFL/SOT can purchase without much hassle so a lot of them will be demo items that probably never get demonstrated.
I am sure there are private collections of MGs but I doubt more than NFA states. Not even adjusted for population. Before 1986 most gun owners went cheap and bought a semi auto AR15 for $500 instead of an M16 for $600 and a $200 stamp thinking they could walk out withthe gun the same day and from 1 it when they felt like it or had the money. Back then $200 bought about 2000 rounds of 556.
Why would a range (assuming the range was an FFL/SOT) pay a $200 tax per machine gun when they already paid a blanket SOT to manufacture as many machine guns as they wanted or they could form 3 as many as they wanted without paying the $200 stamp? It is the same deal today. I am not about to pay $200 for the dozen or so suppressors I have here as demos when I already paid $1000 for my SOT. All my post sample machine guns will never have tax stamps.
A lot of those machine guns that may or may not have been legal to possess in CA have been moving out of state for decades now. The owners did not put them on a trust and when they died those guns had to go elsewhere since they could not be passed down. The very few left in CA are just hidden away contraband leaving hardly any legal MGs on the NFA list. I would have no doubt that a lot of those CA MGs with tax stamps on the list are somewhere else or in someone else's possession because the NFA does not change the numbers unless someone notifies them.
I am sure there are private collections of MGs but I doubt more than NFA states. Not even adjusted for population. Before 1986 most gun owners went cheap and bought a semi auto AR15 for $500 instead of an M16 for $600 and a $200 stamp thinking they could walk out withthe gun the same day and from 1 it when they felt like it or had the money. Back then $200 bought about 2000 rounds of 556.
Why would a range (assuming the range was an FFL/SOT) pay a $200 tax per machine gun when they already paid a blanket SOT to manufacture as many machine guns as they wanted or they could form 3 as many as they wanted without paying the $200 stamp? It is the same deal today. I am not about to pay $200 for the dozen or so suppressors I have here as demos when I already paid $1000 for my SOT. All my post sample machine guns will never have tax stamps.
A lot of those machine guns that may or may not have been legal to possess in CA have been moving out of state for decades now. The owners did not put them on a trust and when they died those guns had to go elsewhere since they could not be passed down. The very few left in CA are just hidden away contraband leaving hardly any legal MGs on the NFA list. I would have no doubt that a lot of those CA MGs with tax stamps on the list are somewhere else or in someone else's possession because the NFA does not change the numbers unless someone notifies them.
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