A proposal backed by 17 pro-gun groups aims to get rid of the nearly century-old law that strictly regulates suppressors, short-barreled rifles, machine guns, and other firearms.
The National Firearms Act, passed in 1934 as a knee-jerk reaction to Prohibition-era crime and Depression-era bank robbers that caught the media's attention, placed what was at the time an exorbitant federal tax on a variety of firearm types. This included firearms capable of firing fully automatic with a single trigger pull, "silencers," rifles with barrels under 16 inches long (or shotguns with barrels under 18 inches long) as well as a catch-all category dubbed "any other weapons" that covered concealable firearms that weren't recognizable as handguns.
The barrel length restrictions and AOW categories existed to close "loopholes" as the NFA's original language banned handguns, a section that was removed.
Since then, the regulation has not matured and has become increasingly onerous. While the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, has been in place since 1998 and typically comes back with a "proceed," "delay," or "deny" for the transfer of Title I firearms in seconds, the check for the transfer of a Title II NFA item can run weeks and months, particularly if done on paper forms.
Whereas only a small pool of guns was covered by the NFA at introduction, the law has since been bolstered through subsequent measures passed by Congress in 1968 and 1986, adding further categories and red tape.
Over this same period, the NFA's tax rates, still frozen in 1934 dollars, plunged to more affordable levels due to inflation. This led to increased sales and a massive NFA registry expansion. For instance, the number of registered NFA items in December 2010 was 2,850,406. A decade later, by December 2020 – a year in which 2,409,585 NFA firearms forms were processed alone – the figure on record stood at 7,512,175.
The logic behind keeping the NFA on the books is being increasingly questioned as a case of bureaucracy for bureaucracy's sake – a red tape machine placed in perpetual motion through a fuzzy origin story.
Looking to cut this Gordian knot, a group of Republican lawmakers in the House on Monday proposed a bill to delete the regulatory structure of the NFA and halt its enforcement. This would presumably make all firearms Title I, which can be transferred over the counter with an instant check and no additional federal tax.
"The federal government has manipulated the National Firearms Act for nearly a century to strip Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens," said U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo), who has introduced the Repeal the NFA Act. "Unelected bureaucrats at the ATF have weaponized the NFA as a tool to criminalize millions of responsible gun owners."
Burlison's one-page bill is simple and deletes Chapter 53 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, effectively erasing the Hughes Act and the NFA in one swing.
The proposal has the support of six fellow GOP lawmakers in Congress.
The pro-Second Amendment groups on record as endorsing the effort include: American Firearms Association, Alabama Firearms Association, Georgia Gun Owners, Illinois Firearms Association, Indiana Firearms Association, Iowa Gun Owners, Minnesota Gun Rights, Michigan Firearms Association, Missouri Firearms Coalition, North Carolina Firearms Coalition, New York State Firearms Association, Ohio Gun Owners, Pennsylvania Firearms Association, Tennessee Gun Owners, Washington Gun Rights, Wisconsin Firearms Coalition, and Wyoming Gun Owners.
