I suppose you meant "M-16"...

Actually, they DID mean such things as M-16s.

The recent US Appeals Court in PArker vs DC rules just exactly that - that the Second Amendment's term "arms" means the common military arms carried by the standard infrantry soldier, citing the US Supreme Court's "Miller" decision which affirmed the same.

Which, by the way, means the Second Amendment specifically forbids the government from infringing on our right to keep and bear FULL AUTO "assault rifles" and light machine guns.

(And, yes, you CAN do just that - but the system demands you pay a 200 dollar tax and register the weapon and give up your fingerprints etc etc....)

You said "I do believe that anyone registering for a gun needs to have a background check." To which I say "anyone registering for a gun needs to have a brain check" because registration is an infringement. In fact, the US Congress promised us decades ago there would be NO firearms registration. Supposedly, we do not have any gun registration (except for Class III weapons, such as full auto rifles or pistols, short barreled rifles or shotguns, and destructive devices - like grenades or missiles or artillery cannons).

In reality, though, we DO have a de facto illegal federal gun registry - the NCIC background check.