SaltwaterServr;3323486 said:
It's not exactly easy to purchase or maintain ownership of an automatic weapon. A whack job with an organic chemistry book from a local library, a credit card, and a Home Depot nearby could do more damage than they whack job your worried about.
I do think they make a point of monitoring suspicious consumption of products involved in creating mass explosives now so the argument isn't entirely proper.
I don't think the purpose of the constitution was to allow anyone to own any weapon of his choice. They just didn't have weapons of this nature back then so they couldn't predict what sort of weapons would be available in the future. In the same way not just anyone should be allowed to own a nuclear warhead, there are certain types of military grade weaponry that shouldn't be accessible to the general public.
Handguns, rifles and shotguns serve legitimate civilian purposes. Other higher grade weapons serve mostly combat purposes. A line has to be drawn in the sand at some point and it is up to responsible legislators informed by a variety of knowledgeable forces without major conflicts of interest to decide where that should be.