So it's ok for police officers to be in possession of illicitly purchased machine guns ?

The guns, which were destroyed by the city three years ago, were India-made, fully-automatic rifles classified as "machine guns" by the U.S. Treasury Department. The military-style guns were purchased at sharply discounted, tax-exempt prices that relied on false assertions by city police that they would be used for "official duties only, purchased by the department for departmental use only

An investigation by the Times Union revealed the guns changed hands over the years as officers sold them to one another and also to others outside the department.