{"id":39256,"date":"2015-07-02T13:10:29","date_gmt":"2015-07-02T17:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/blog\/?p=39256"},"modified":"2015-07-02T13:10:29","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T06:45:43","slug":"legally-buy-machine-guns-silencers-short-barrels-understand-the-nfa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/legally-buy-machine-guns-silencers-short-barrels-understand-the-nfa\/","title":{"rendered":"Legally Buy Machine Guns, Silencers, Short Barrels–Understand the NFA"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The aftermath–the media coverage was more graphic even than much of the coverage we see of gang violence today.<\/p><\/div>\n

(Note: I am not an attorney and this does not constitute legal advice. You\u2019ll find resources in the article to which you can refer for legal guidance.)<\/p>\n

The misunderstandings about the National Firearms Act (NFA) go back a long way. All the way to Prohibition, in fact, to gang warfare and shootings like the St. Valentine\u2019s Day Massacre:<\/p>\n

It was February 14th, 1929. The Irish gangster Bugsy Moran, one of Al Capone\u2019s fiercest enemies, ran his bootlegging operation out of a garage on the north side of Chicago. Men dressed as policemen entered the garage and told the seven men they found there that they were under arrest. The men were then lined up in front of a brick wall and unceremoniously gunned down. Al Capone was conveniently at his home in Florida at the time.<\/p>\n

The St. Valentine\u2019s Day Massacre was followed four years later, February 15th, 1933, by an assassination attempt on President Roosevelt by Giuseppe Zangara in Miami. Roosevelt escaped unharmed but the mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak, died from his wounds. The people had had enough.<\/p>\n

\"Big<\/a>

Big Al with his attorneys during his 1931 trial for tax evasion. They were smiling but he went to prison.<\/p><\/div>\n

WHAT IS NFA?<\/h2>\n

In 1934 Congress passed the National Firearms Act (NFA). The purpose of the law was to curtail transactions in firearms favored by organized crime (NFA Firearms). These included machine guns, silencers, and sawed-off shotguns. Because the law was passed supposedly as an exercise of Congress\u2019 authority to tax, that was the mechanism used to accomplish their real goals. The transfer tax on an NFA Firearm was set at $200. Adjusted for inflation, that was equivalent to $3,557.76 in 2015 dollars. Congress felt that was enough to curtail sales of these firearms. Of course, it was pocket change for the big gangs of the day. However, it did make it nearly impossible for everyday citizens to buy them. The takeaway here is that, although it priced these items out of the reach of ordinary citizens, it did not make them illegal as long as they were properly registered and the tax was paid.<\/p>\n

The NFA was updated through Title II of the Gun Control Act (GCA) of 1968, and the misnamed Firearm Owner\u2019s Protection Act (FOPA) of 1986. FOPA made it illegal for anyone other than the military and law enforcement to possess a machinegun except for those already registered prior to May 19, 1986. It also made components of NFA Firearms, like silencer parts and fully automatic trigger packs, into NFA Firearms under the law. It was justified as an \u201cintent to build\u201d an NFA Firearm.<\/p>\n

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\"Since<\/a>

Since real criminals are hard to catch, the public-through their elected representatives-consented to the criminalization of objects., such as the Thompson.<\/p><\/div>\n

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SO WHAT ARE TODAY\u2019S NFA FIREARMS AND HOW CAN YOU LEGALLY OWN THEM UNDER FEDERAL LAW?<\/h2>\n

NFA Firearms Categories: (National Firearms Handbook https:\/\/www.atf.gov\/firearms\/national-firearms-act-handbook<\/a>)<\/p>\n