In that case, I'm definitely convinced to your side of the argument! If a civilian can buy it, I see no reason why a police force shouldn't be able to as well. That said, I'd love to hear any counter-arguments to this notion, if they exist.
My point, is these were given to the police. While a civilian may technically be eligible to buy one for $500k (bulk pricing) but we realistically have no opportunity to purchase. So the parent's comment applies.
* you can however buy a modern rifle that's made to have its automatic mode disabled, but my understanding is that it's trivial to modify to become automatic (but it will no longer be legal)
Also the ones that are on the market (pre-86) go for tens of thousands of dollars to start. They are basically coveted by rich collectors who show them off at designated "machine gun shoot" days at specialty ranges.
> but my understanding is that it's trivial to modify to become automatic
It's not trivial. Requires decent gun-smithing skill, the ability to craft an auto sear, and some extra parts. To my knowledge no one has been confirmed to have done that and convicted of it in recent history.
https://www.newfrontierarmory.com/shop/m-16-full-auto-lpk/
The reason why it's legal is because these will only fit in a full auto receiver, which is the regulated part. But most semi-auto lower receivers can be converted to accept said full auto trigger group simply by drilling a single hole in the receiver. Which is also fairly trivial, given that you're drilling aluminum, and jigs are readily available:
https://www.newfrontierarmory.com/shop/m-16-drilling-jig/
If you ever hear references to the "third hole" in gun context, or see the meme linked below, that's what it is about.
I had an old 12-gauge semi that you could break a match stick off in the breach, and it would unload the entire magazine automatically with one pull of the trigger. That was pretty trivial.
There is also the fact that even if a civilian could technically buy one, it's not really feasible to actually do so.
> There is also the fact that even if a civilian could technically buy one, it's not really feasible to actually do so.
Keep in mind that these vehicles were originally bought by the Pentagon using civilians' money (tax money). So far for feasibility.