Its time to overhaul the NFA 1934

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As much as I dislike the NFA and hate the tax, wait, and limited inventory of MGs, trying to repeal the NFA right now is a fools errand. We've had a supposedly pro gun republican president, and a republican house, and a republican senate for the last 2 years.

How many pro-gun bills have passed?



We need to coordinate our efforts on things that have a chance of passing, not tell people "vote tomorrow for the incumbents and the party that's already had the means for the past 2 years MAY decide to finally do something we want...maybe".
 
I would like nothing better than the repeal of the NFA, or at least its substantial relaxation by removing suppressors and SBR's and opening the MG registry.

It's not going to happen as long as the legislators are polarized and ossified. Something big would have to break the logjam.

Strangely enough, if the antigunners make headway on their gun control agenda (something I don't want to see, BTW), it might be possible to slip something in that would reform the NFA. (For example, if military-style semiautomatics were added to the NFA, there might be a blanket amnesty for registration that would cover currently-unregistered full automatics as well.) On the whole, though, the price for reforming the NFA would just be too high.
 
While I'd like to see a reform to these laws, I doubt it's going to ever happen in the direction we want. Remember that Hearing Protection Act? Even with the Republicans in control of the house, senate, and presidency, they weren't able to deregulate something as innocuous as a firearm suppressor.
 
That is because of the filibuster in the Senate, you really need 60 votes to get anything done. We can also hope for a case to land before the Supreme Court... though I would like to see Ginsburg and Breyer (by Pres. Trump) replaced before that happens.
 
That is because of the filibuster in the Senate, you really need 60 votes to get anything done. We can also hope for a case to land before the Supreme Court... though I would like to see Ginsburg and Breyer (by Pres. Trump) replaced before that happens.

Even Scalia's opinions weren't close to invalidating the NFA. That's not going to happen absent a massive shift in public opinion... the kind of shift that will never happen for so long as gun control views are polarized and only favored by (part of) one side of the political spectrum.

Think about the massive shift that occurred around gay marriage and other gay rights issues... that shift really happened when many Republicans got on board. Repealing the NFA, or the other "basic" laws regarding guns that predate most voters' births, could only occur if you saw a shift so big that it started to move people of both parties. We're very, very, very far away from that on guns right now.
 
That's not going to happen absent a massive shift in public opinion... the kind of shift that will never happen for so long as gun control views are polarized and only favored by (part of) one side of the political spectrum.
On the other hand, NFA items are such a small niche that they aren't on the general public's radar. There is gross misinformation regarding the subject. For example, if you ask people, most will echo Wayne LaPierre's statement that "machine guns are already illegal." This leaves an opening for legislative sleight-of-hand, like slipping in NFA reform as part of a larger gun bill, or even a larger tax bill. Special-interest provisions that nobody notices are put into omnibus bills all the time. After all, tactics like that are how we got the Hughes Amendment in the first place. All you need is a small number of clued-in legislators, that happen to be masters of legislative procedures and the inner workings of the system.
Furthermore, "expanding registration" is an antigun goal. If repealing Hughes -- expanding the registry -- is framed in the right way, it might get support in some surprising quarters.
 
On the other hand, NFA items are such a small niche that they aren't on the general public's radar.

Oh, if you ask a person who isn't interested in guns about whether full auto guns or silencers should be made more broadly available they have strong opinions on these.

And the MSM did a very "good job" of shining a lot of light on the efforts to get suppressors de-listed. There was a brief window of time to sneak that through, and it has long since closed. It absolutely IS on the radar screen.
 
There again as we add conservatives to the US Supreme Court, the proper case may be the route to restore rights. Though I would like to see Ginsburg and Breyer gone before that happens.
 
There again as we add conservatives to the US Supreme Court, the proper case may be the route to restore rights. Though I would like to see Ginsburg and Breyer gone before that happens.
The best we can hope for there is that AWB's will be declared unconstitutional -- and even that is a long reach. It doesn't matter how many conservatives are on the bench. The Justices aren't going to touch machine guns.
 
Oh, if you ask a person who isn't interested in guns about whether full auto guns or silencers should be made more broadly available they have strong opinions on these.
That's exactly the wrong way to frame the issue. The correct way is to say that there are lots of unregistered machine guns, and we are trying to put them on record and control them.
 
The best we can hope for there is that AWB's will be declared unconstitutional -- and even that is a long reach. It doesn't matter how many conservatives are on the bench. The Justices aren't going to touch machine guns.

I'd give that about a 99.9+% chance of being the correct assessment.
 
That's exactly the wrong way to frame the issue. The correct way is to say that there are lots of unregistered machine guns, and we are trying to put them on record and control them.

No difference. The days of being able to pull that kind of game are over. No chance.
 
I would imagine that, right now, the only thing that would actually come from opening up the NFA for surgery would be increasing the NFA tax and tying it to inflation.

You could maybe get silencers pulled out... but that's unlikely.
 
As someone with a heterdox mix of political views, I read a lot of sources from across the spectrum. I can tell you that outlets like Slate, Vox, and other online, semi-MSM platforms (which have a BIG influence on the modern Democratic party - too big) were all over the Hearing Protection Act and all the other suppressor-liberation efforts. We're not gonna sneak this stuff by anyone, and the politics are a long way from supporting it. We'd have to get back to work convincing large numbers of currently gun-skeptical people that this stuff would be beneficial and not a source of additional risk for them. Of course, there's a lot of tension between that and the fire-up-the-base approach I see dominating things right now.
 
The whole bump stock issue might actually provide a way to revisit the whole issue. IF the ATF rules that these are machine guns, that will retroactively affect at the ATF's estimate between a quarter of a million to half a million stocks were sold. Those stocks weren't cheap and sales records etc. may make it impossible to identify and recall all such stocks. So, if the ATF's change in rules happens, easily over 100000 people could now be considered criminals subject to a stiff sentence and fines Remember that intent is not the legal issue here-possession of a "machine gun" is all that is required once the ATF makes its ruling.

Thus, as a matter of law enforcement and fairness, one could argue that the Hughes Amendment should be altered to allow new registrants upon paying a tax and sending in the forms for these unfortunate folks stuck in potential legal danger. As a temporary reopening represents a deficit reducing measure, then under Senate rules, the filibuster does not apply to my understanding of Senate rules.
 
Sure, one could argue that. And it even makes sense. I don't think you will persuade many of the current crop of what I think will be the new House majority, though.
 
In order to repeal the NFA/GCA 1968 the white house resident must be a pro-gunner: We ain't had one lately.

On firearms, essentially we are stuck in WWI type trench warfare where there are gains in some states and losses in others but the overall national picture is stagnation.
 
Kavanuagh said machine guns can be prohibited. So forget any constitutional challenge on them. Also, forget for the foreseeable future even the possibility of legislative action. There was a slight possibility of some in Trump's first two years but the Republican leadership ran from it.

Note that you never hear any national GOP leader say we must expand gun rights and pass legislation mandating at least easy shall issue carry or forbidding weapons type bans across the country. They are not interested in such, at all. Some members may propose such but it's just for show.
 
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