"The number of deaths attributable to automatic firearms is effectively nil, as they've been highly controlled since the days of Al Capone and his ilk."
Well, since we're going to be pedantic, this should really say "the number of deaths attributable to legally owned automatic firearms", since there is quite a bit of criminal violence (as in, violence to support criminal activities, like drive bys, rip deals resulting in shootings etc) and deaths involving automatic weapons (although it's quite hard to find statistics on this, to my surprise). MAC 10's and Mini Uzis are rather popular for that sort of shenanigans, because of their small size (thus easily concealable). An AR15 style weapon (which is usually the type of weapon people talk about when the discussion is about 'assault rifles') is very impractical for such a thing, as per your point.
> there is quite a bit of criminal violence and deaths involving automatic weapons
Is that true? I don't know that it is. Because of the inflated value of automatic firearms, I would simply have assumed that the cost to benefit ratio just wasn't there for automatic weapons.
I suppose the two arms you mentioned may have easily replaceable sears or something to that effect, but every time I've seen an incident in the news involving a Mac 10 or the like, it's been a semi-automatic version.
One incident I remember specifically from when I was working at the ATF had been recently (e.g., within a few months) from when it was initially purchased to when it was used in a crime, but its initial purchase was a straw purchase from an FFL, and was decidedly not full auto.
That said, I've only anecdata at this point as I no longer have the ability to scan the ATF databases.
> MAC 10's and Mini Uzis are rather popular for that sort of shenanigans, because of their small size (thus easily concealable).
Since you have provided no citation, I can only judge this statement by my own anecdotal experience.
As someone who is closely involved with "gun culture", I'm aware of only a handful of cases where automatic weapons were confiscated in the US - and of no cases they were used in a murder in my adult lifetime.
You might be younger than me ^_^, but in my lifetime two legally civilian owned automatic weapons were used in crimes, both murders as I remember, one by a policeman, though. I can't recall any illegal ones being used in murders, but maybe some escaped my notice. Legal or illegal, they are demonstrably not a problem; in fact, the NFA of 1934 used them as a wedge to try to severely restrict handgun ownership, but that failed in the Congress.
Well, since we're going to be pedantic, this should really say "the number of deaths attributable to legally owned automatic firearms", since there is quite a bit of criminal violence (as in, violence to support criminal activities, like drive bys, rip deals resulting in shootings etc) and deaths involving automatic weapons (although it's quite hard to find statistics on this, to my surprise). MAC 10's and Mini Uzis are rather popular for that sort of shenanigans, because of their small size (thus easily concealable). An AR15 style weapon (which is usually the type of weapon people talk about when the discussion is about 'assault rifles') is very impractical for such a thing, as per your point.