It's funny, I don't think you realize how many telltale signs of "doesn't know what the fuck they're talking about" you're displaying. You're using terms like "Machine Gun" and "Assault Rifle" as a proxy for "This gun LOOKS scary, so it must be deadlier!" which just isn't the case. Second, I wasn't saying the cops gave those guys machine guns - I'm saying that THE ONLY crime committed with a legally acquired MACHINE GUN after they started the NFA background check system, in US History, was committed by a cop who was provided his gun by his department.

An AK-47 ISN'T a "Machine Gun" OR an "Assault Rifle." It's a PATTERN of firearm. It's like saying a Ford Pinto performs the same as a Mustang because they have wheels. An Assault Rifle shoots 3 rounds per trigger pull. A machine gun shoots rounds repeatedly as long as the trigger is depressed. Both of which, while NOT illegal, are REALLY fucking hard to get legally. You have to have a special kind of FFL license and or a special tax stamp from the ATF, which is expensive, requires a comprehensive background check, usually the gun has to date to prior to 1986 to be legally transferred so it's rare and supplies are dwindling. Most importantly, it takes A YEAR to get the paperwork done. Not something criminals are going to bother with - nor have they so far. The AK's you can buy here DO NOT fire full auto or in 3 round bursts (I don't even think there is a assault pattern AK but, w/e). On top of that, in pretty much every case (I think there's been like 2 or 3 exceptions), the guns used in mass shootings were obtained illegally, semi-auto or otherwise. You get red flagged for mental illness or previous felonies and can't pass a NIX to buy a gun which tends to rule out legal purchases for the violently insane and criminals pretty effectively. That means that the "aK deAtH MacHine GuNs" those guys used are, functionally, the same as a pistol (which makes up the lion's share of gun killings) or any other rifle. They're actually LESS deadly, for reasons I'll get to later. It just "looks scary" and has a reputation amongst people who think what they see on TV is reality.

Additionally, becasue of the Geneva Convention, military pattern rifle calibers - like .223/5.56mm in AR's or 7.62mm in AK are designed to wound and incapacitate by being high velocity, "through and through" projectiles that leave less gruesome wounds than hollow point pistol rounds. They tend to actually have the problem of NOT immediately incapacitating assailants, which is why cops use pistols w/ hollow points. Additionally, AK pattern rifles are notorious for conflict NOT because they're effective but because they're CHEAPLY MADE out of stamped metal under the old Soviet philosophy of "quantity has a quality all its own" and aren't particularly good, accurate or deadly guns. There's just a fuckton of them floating around in 3rd world conflict zones because the USSR made them in higher quantity than food for its people. However, they're relatively rare here because they can't be imported and have to be made locally. We also don't share a border with the conflict zones that were flooded with them (it's basically an African, Asian or Eastern European gun). Given those issues I mentioned, they tend to be pretty unpopular, except as rarish contraband that's been illegally imported. I'm not saying you can't get them but, they're since they're inferior to the much easier to acquire AR in pretty much every respect, they just aren't common

Meanwhile, pistols - which no politician who wants to get elected will try to ban because they're so popular for self defense - are almost always loaded out with Hollow Points. Which are illegal under the GC because of the wounds they make. They will go in at the size of the bullet and blow out a hole the size of a silver dollar for a smaller round to up to an orange for larger handgun rounds. They will fuck your shit up and kill with just a glancing hit to a vital area. A 4" pocket pistol running .380 ACP Hollow points - basically the smallest self defense round (also larger than the rounds an AR or AK fires), is WAYYYY easier to conceal and arguably MUCH deadlier. It's REALLY hard to accurately hit a vital spot, even with a rifle's stability and get an instant kill with just penetration (it's like being stabbed with an ice pick). Hollow points on the other hand only require a glancing hit to cause massive trauma to surrounding areas, open up arteries in the limbs, etc. So, if you're going to be terrified of guns, you should be bitching about pistols 40% of women are carrying in their purses. If you think that's bad, you should see what kind of damage shotguns do...

As for actual machine guns and assault rifles being "dangerous" they're even LESS EFFECTIVE than what I already mentioned. They're fun to shoot at the range once or twice in a lifetime but, bullets are expensive and you litteraly will dump the whole magazine within a second of holding the trigger down. That means your aim is so shitty you're LESS likely to hit a target than with an aimed shot. The reason they're used in combat is because you're likely only going to get a glimpse of a target, at 200+ yards, while moving from cover to cover and, just spray as much lead their way as possible, hoping for a lucky, unaimed hit. That's why it takes something like 10,000 rounds per combatant killed in warfare. The doctrine is litteraly referred to as "Spray and Pray" (that you hit something).

Point being, you want to control access to guns but don't even know the first thing about them. That means you should probably STFU and defer to people who actually know what they're talking about. And that goes double for the dumbfuck politicians you probably vote for and the media talking heads whose opinions you mindlessly parrot.