What does a civilian need a machine gun for???

So he can shoot another civillian with a machine gun who is about to burgle his house...I think.

Or simply because the treaty does not mesh with current US laws.

This is not only about machine guns.

As long as your government has arms, you are not free from them.
Do you truly believe you have no right to self defense and preservation?

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
-Thomas Jefferson

But the right to arms isnt about hunting or sporting or if a man "needs" to have a weapon, its about the defense of liberty pure and simple.

Individually an armed citizen is meaningless. Collectively they are a source to defend against a government overstepping its bounds and infringing upon the freedom of the citizenry.

”The right of the people to keep and bear…arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country…”
-James Madison

”The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state-controlled police and military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of democracy. If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only the police, the secret police, the military. The hired servants of our rulers. Only the government-and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws.”
-Edward Abbey

"Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state."
Thomas Jefferson

Come on, guys, enough already with the juvenile remarks about firearms. You either like them or you don't, and your opinions aren't going to make a damn bit of difference to either side, so just shut it down, OK?
I happen to be fascinated by the Snipers art, and enjoy reading about the incredible privations they have to endure to carry out their jobs. Two fiction books by Gunny Jack Coughlin I can recommend, "Kill Zone" and "Dead Shot". And that link about the Finnish Sniper................Incredible!

ask that to the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto in 1944...

Guys, not another gun debate please, I don't think you can understand if you've never used one, and surely the higher moral grounds of some of the anti-gun people here show very poor historical memory and lack of common sense.

Feel free to live without the need for a gun, but please save your wit and sarcasm, because you never know in life when/if you're gonna need to handle a gun.. let's hope not, but if it happens you'd better know what to do..

Firearms as toys, for sport, as a hobby, as a collectable or for hunting all seem reasonable and relatively sane.

The idea that when the tea baggers and Palin takeover the US government and as a result the US military, a popular uprising of patriotic Americans armed with assault rifles and hand guns will be able to oust them is just insanity.

The post above this is a perfect example of why English lessons should not be taken in a pub over a few pints. On second thought, that's how the English language was devised in the first place.

There is a HUGE difference between knowing how to handle a gun and having your personal arsenal at home to be abused at will.

So perhaps get off your high moral ground and take CWMV's outdated quotations from men who never knew modern societies with you.

WE, the poeple who are against fire arms being kept in the hands of civilians, have actually learned from history and embrace the non-violent means of modern democracy, which have been developed by mankind as a lesson learned from history.