1) 39 states allow machine guns.
2) There are dozens of dealers who specialize in this in each 39 of those states. I am 10 miles from the closest one for me and I don't live in a big city, we ain't even got a hydro shop.
3) You can buy machine guns online and have them shipped anywhere you want. I provided a link for you, remember?
4) You can actually legally force them to sign it. Also, if you incorporate you don't need a signature at all.
5) The background check is roughly the same as getting a gun and a passport. You know if you have done something wrong.
6) Most people are approved.
7) 3-6 month wait for the paperwork generally.
You don't have to show that you deserve a machine gun, the ATF only looks at the background check. It isn't that painful. I suppose not having been through the process you might think so, but it isn't. It is the same process for getting a silencer. It isn't a big deal. Remember the first time you did something like hydro, brewing, ect and you thought "wow, this seems like a lot" but once you did it you realized it was all pretty simple? This is no different. Just because you aren't familiar with it doesn't make it hard or impossible.
You are missing a giant point. There are hundreds of thousands of people who have registered machine guns and who aren't dealers. Dealers get to buy the $500-1000 new machine guns and beat the shit out of them without worry, they sell the registered ones because they are worth a lot of money.
FFL's don't work that way. The only FFL you can get without a store to sell guns from is a FFL03(aka C&R). Clinton cracked down on having a FFL unless you basically had a store front and lots of gun sales. No selling guns from your garage using a FFL. The C&R actually cuts down on the hoops you have to jump through to buy a lot of machine guns and in another couple decades will cover all of them.
There isn't a license, just a tax stamp you have to apply for.
so theres no actual federal licenses to own a machine gun, just a tightly controlled program that ensures the everyone who owns a machinegun:
is qualified in the eyes of the regulatory authority to own operate or use such an item
registers THEMSELVES and their machinery with the regulatory authority
updates the regulatory authority on any status changes which could affect their qualifications to operate the object
updates the regulatory authority on where, how and why they operate the regulated object
adheres to the regulatory authority's approved practices in dealing with the object
adheres to all other federal and state laws pertaining the the object
does not use the object in the furtherance of any unlawful activity
prevents anyone but Authorized Personnel from having access to the equipment
so you dont actually need a federal license for an aircraft, a blast furnace, an oil refinery, a nuclear power plant, or a toxic waste dump. it just LOOKS like you need a license to operate those facilities...
according to the ATF theres approximately 240,000 registered machineguns in the US of which the atf claims fully HALF are owned by local and state lawer infrursmint ajinceez, leaving 120,000 in the hands on "people".
unfortunately you must also subtract the arms held by
movie property houses (even if they only chamber and fire blank cartridges)
firearms museums
research and development labs
private military contractors
lawer infursment offisurs who keep these arms in their private collections
private security firms
so that leaves very few actual machine guns actually eligible to be owned by those who "Totally Dont Have A Federal Firearms License" but who in all actuality are more tightly regulated than the owners of aircraft, landfills, oil refineries or pharmacies, all of which require a license from the fed to own and operate.
but they dont call it a license so its totally different. it looks exactly like a federal license to own these firearms but its NOT called that. nope. totally different
you dont "apply" to pay a tax. you pay the tax. the tax is a canard to create a licensing program thats totally not licensing, nope, not at all...
just like the ATF doesnt keep a registry of firearms transactions since they are "required by law" to destroy all the transfer records within 24 hours of completion... except they DO keep them. forever. but it's not a backdoor registration program, nope. it's "Statistical Data", not a registry. it just looks exactly like a registry. totally different.
as to "forcing" the local Po Po to sign your plea for plenary indulgence, you cannot force anyone to sign anything, especially not your county sheriff, or the local police chief. if they dont want to sign they dont have to, thats why their signature is required for YOU, they are not required sign shit. if they were required to sign or could be compelled to sign WHY HAVE THEM SIGN AT ALL?
i was licensed to handle explosives for several years, and licensed to use pesticides and herbicides for MANY years. those licenses were exactly the same, as the "not a license" license you must get to recvieve a machine gun, and i am more than familiar with the ATF's licensing process. nobody can own a machinegun without their permission, and anyone who receives their indulgence to own one will probably want a second one eventually, and that means going through the whole process again, unless you get the "Actually Called A License" license which allows you to own and operate machineguns that are not classified as "relics" and dont cost more than a 4 year degree at harvard.
even before 1986, actually getting ONE machinegun was exactly as intrusive and boithersome as getting the magic ticket that lets you buy dozens of them, but now, getting the magic ticket from the ATF is the ONLY way to get your mitts on an automatic weapon that doesnt require a military recruiter, or being a member of a federal goonsquad. the 61,000 people/organizations who hold federal licenses to operate gun shops and firearms manufacturing facilities are the ONLY ones who can actually own a machinegun these days save for a statistically insignificant miniscule infinitesimal number of people who still own machine guns manufactured between 1860 and 1986. and most of those "people" are movie prop houses and museums, not actual people.
edit:
"You are missing a giant point. There are hundreds of thousands of people who have registered machine guns and who aren't dealers."
really hundreds of thousands of people, private people who arent "licensed firearms dealers" who do not hold an FFL?
hundreds of thousands of people who each own one of the ~120,000 registered machineguns the atf claims are in "private hands" (which means not a state or local lawer infursement ajinsee) MINUJS the ones held by museums and movie property houses and r&d labs and the manufacturers themselves, PMC's and private security firms?
really hundreds of thousands of ordinary people... lawfully registered machineguns? REALLY?
even if EVERY lawfully registered machinegun not owned by a state or local law agency was in the hands of some schmuck, that would mean that a maxiumum, an absolute mathematical
maximum of 120,000 people could own a machinegun. or is there some machine gun timeshare program i havent heard about.