Wall Street Journal Reporter Gets Gun Law Wrong on CNN

Wall Street Journal Reporter Gets Gun Law Wrong on CNN (The Washington Free Beacon)

Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender told a panel on CNN's Inside Politics on Friday that fully automatic firearms produced after 1985 are legal to own in the United States—but the exact opposite is true.

"If you put a ban on the floor of these that would ban a device that turns something into an automatic weapon then even the initial question is ‘why not a full ban on all automatic weapons,' which is not the case," he said. "Anything made after '85 is legal right now."

The Hughes Amendment to the Firearms Owners' Protection Act of 1986 made it "unlawful for any person to transfer or possess a machinegun except in the case of a machinegun that was lawfully possessed before the date of enactment." That effectively outlawed the ownership of fully automatic firearms illegal for civilians in the United States. Beyond that, the ownership of fully automatic firearms manufactured before 1986 is highly regulated under the National Firearms Act of 1934.