Rabbi, I regularly receive catalogues from a police supply company that I've done a little business with.
They sell M16A2's to departments for between $600 and $700.
There is no reason why a full-auto version of a particular gun should be more expensive than its semi-auto counterpart.
I know the story of the FOPA of 1986, and I do not blame the NRA. It was a victory for 99.9% of gun owners, and a hit for the other .1%.
Still, though, it galls me that the anti-gunners even won that much.
When the Clinton AW ban was still in effect, I had to make a decision between abiding by the law, or saying the law is sometimes crazy, and just ignoring it.
In the case of full-auto's, I'd like to be able to say the law is crazy and ignore it. The consequences, though, are pretty scarey.
A short anecdote: years back I had a neighbor who was an armorer in Viet Nam. Somehow, he managed to come home with full-auto trigger groups for M16's, M14's, and a few other rifles. He kept them in wooden barrels in his attic.
He and his wife also collected religious statues.
There had been several thefts of statues from churches, and someone in the neighborhood called the police on him.
Detectives came over, and went through his house, with my neighbor's permission. They didn't find anything illegal (nor did I think they would). But, they opened those barrels, looked inside, decided there weren't any religious statues in there, and went on to search other areas of the house.