That information on the BATF getting a half a million dollars to straighten out the NFA registry is correct. But, even the BATF has admitted that the records are too screwed up to be able to repair them entirely without another amnesty registration period, which for some reason they'd rather not do.
BUT, (and this is the juicy part), there is but ONE authority that can declare an amnesty period, and that authority is the Attorney General, John "The Second Amendment applies to Individuals" Ashcroft, who's as close to a friend as gun owners have had in the A.G.'s office since before 1968.
This is a VERY hopeful situation!
Look at it this way: Congress DEMANDS that the BATF straighten out their records. The only way to do it is with an amnesty registration period. And the only one who can declare that amnesty period is decidedly pro-gun.
This is NOT a complex logic puzzle. I firmly predict that there WILL be an amnesty registration period in the near future. I also predict that while it will be publicized as it has to be, it will be publicized as quietly as the government can possibly get away with. The announcement will be buried in the back of the legal notices in the most obscure government publication you can find, if they can get away with it.
I don't know if it's possible to have a 'selective' amnesty registration for MG's, or if it has to be an open gate affair, branding every cow that wanders in regardless of its age, sex, and condition, even the dead ones. If it IS an open gate affair, then suddenly I see a use for all those M16 parts kits you can find on ebay at any given moment...! But the prices will climb, I betcha.
Yes, I could manage 200 bucks...make that 400...(plus parts) to pay the taxes on two AR's that need just a single extra hole to accept GI autosears. But I wouldn't do it until the amnesty period came into effect (and before it ended, of course) and had sure knowledge that the conversion would be legal and registerable.
However, I would not be surprised to discover that some wiseass in Congress would try to get the tax changed from 200 bucks (which was a large sum of money back in 1934) to a correspondingly large sum of money in today's terms, like maybe 2000!
As we know, the basis for regulation of machineguns is tax law, and as Al Capone could have told you, tax laws can put you in jail when the criminal justice system can't.
CJ