The Threat is Real, very real.

[montana]

I'd say the difference you are pointing out is only relevant if someone wants to access full-auto legally. Paddock could have purchased full-auto parts legally and just been careful about having them lying around in case of 'Constructive intent'. Bought a drill press and removed some meat in the lower and drilled a hole for the auto sear. You can buy jigs for the hole or just measure the spot and do it manually.

Or, he can take the path of least resistance and buy a bump stock legally and practise using it to make it work. Both ways don't involve any contact with the authorities.

As for all the other arguments here...You all know I am a gun owner and because of that I am selfish in my own want to own and use guns. I am not overly worried if someone opposes my suggestion that some restriction is good for the rest of society because it will affect me as well. Where I come from in the southern hemisphere the population all seems to agree in gun restriction, including gun owners. Talk to any gun owner and they all strongly agree there should be some checks and balances for the greater good. Here there is no right to have firearms, only privileges. Our culture is less defined by the individual imperative to have the means to protect your family, less individualistic and with less emphasis on individual entitlement. We have never had a civil war and so while sometimes people groan about being over-governed there is less community suspicion of the government. Not saying it is a better culture but just different. I have legal access the guns I want in a society that restricts them so it's not the end of the world, just the bottom of the world....

I'm a little taken aback with your opinion of owning firearms as being selfish or an entitlement. This is definitely a difference in our cultures.
Every place I have purchased full auto parts I have been asked for a copy of my NFA tax stamp. It is illegal to own full auto parts without a registered firearm to put them in. There are laws already on the books against modifying a firearm into full auto and they are quite severe. Nobody is against keeping firearm out of the wrong hands but even the military and police has had it's share of kooks misuse their firearms, even after their vetting. We have many checks and balances for the greater good LOL. We don't have entitlements with firearms,"perish the thought" but as much legal right as the authorities to be armed, sadly this is becoming less and less with these idiotic gun bans proposed by a warped change in the intent of our Second Amendment by corrupt politicians and their uneducated supporters. If people don't like this law it can be changed through the amendment process but they have side stepped it,"knowing full well it would not pass" by changing the meaning and the intent. A full auto is described by law as a firearm which will shoot more than one round with a single pull of the trigger. The bump fire stock fires only one time per pull of the trigger. They have been able to ban other firearms and shot guns stating it has no sporting purposes which has absolutely nothing to do with the 2nd Amend. I understand why the NRA is doing what they are doing for political reasons but I completely disagree with it. It is a never ending battle keeping our Constitutional rights and compromising on them is poor strategy.