Though it was the National Firearms Act of 1934 that was the 1st federal-level gun control effort in the United States, it was actually the laws that came next that impacted ownership of certain firearms—notably automatic weapons/machine guns. To take a step back, we need to review the National Firearms Act (NFA), and how it impacted civilian ownership of said items.
The NFA was passed after the sensational St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929 and the assassination attempt of President Franklin Roosevelt a few years later. The NFA put restrictions on automatic weapons, as well as short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and as it was originally drafted, it could have put the same restrictions on handguns. In the end, the final bill removed handguns—and despite some common misconceptions, it didn’t actually outlaw machine guns or other firearms. Instead, the law imposed restrictions that included a rigid background check requirement along with a transfer tax/fee.
Interestingly, that tax was set at $200—which essentially doubled the price of the Thompson submachine gun at the time. Ever since, it has been suggested that was the intent, to make such items prohibitively expensive. What is also notable is that despite inflation, the transfer fee remains set at $200 today —yet, the cost of the firearms it regulates has vastly outpaced even our now record inflation.
Gun Control Act of 1968
The next major piece of federal firearms legislation was the Gun Control Act of 1968. It imposed much stricter licensing and regulation of the firearms industry, and also regulated imported guns, expanded licensing and record-keeping requirements, banned mail-order sales of guns and ammunition, raised the age at which one can legally buy a gun, while it prevented convicted felons, mentally ill people, and illegal drug users from buying firearms.
However, for some collectors, the law had a silver lining.
Following the passage of the 1968 Gun Control Act (GCA) in November 1968, the federal government also initiated a 30-day amnesty to allow registration of previously unregistered firearms—essentially no questions asked. During that very brief window, more than 50,000 firearms were legally registered, including many World War II machine guns, which returning G.I.’s had brought home in huge numbers some 20 years earlier.
In addition, some firearms were removed from the NFA list—and declared “primarily collector’s items and not likely to be used as a weapon” and thus described as “Curios and Relics.” Many other firearms were deemed to be antiques—pre-1898—and were completely exempt from registration.
The Firearm Owners Protection Act
The original intent of the Firearm Owners’ Protection Act (FOPA) was to revise many provisions of the GCA. It was also meant to reduce the allegations of abuse by ATF inspectors—with the case being made that some agents were essentially harassing some Federal Firearms License (FFL) holders out of business. The act mandated that ATF compliance inspections could only be done once per year unless multiple record-keeping violations were recorded during an inspection.
However, the law had a couple of notable downsides. First, it amended the NFA definition of “silencer” (suppressor) by adding combinations of parts for silencers and any part intended for use in the assembly or fabrication of a silencer.
More importantly, the law hardly protected the rights of those who sought to purchase a machine gun as it did ban the production and ownership of “new” machine guns. The bill was in the final stages in the House of Representatives before moving on to the Senate, when Rep. William J. Hughes (D-N.J.) proposed several amendments.
Among those was House Amendment 777 to H.R. 4332, which further amended the GCA to prohibit the transfer or possession of machine guns. Exceptions were made for transfers of machine guns to, or possession of machine guns by, government agencies, and those lawfully possessed before the effective date of the prohibition, May 19, 1986
In essence, it made it (nearly) impossible for civilians to purchase any machine guns that were made after the law took effect on that date. The law also amended the definition of “machine gun” to include any part designed and intended for use in converting a firearm to a machine gun. The only exceptions were those firearms that could only be owned by specialized dealers with the licenses to acquire so pre-ban items as a “sample” to offer to the military and law enforcement.
It was a tiny loophole, and one most civilians could never take advantage of.
A question commonly asked today among collectors of machine guns is why a fight wasn’t put up to stop this, but the truth is that the Democrats controlled the House at the time and there were simply not the Republican votes likely to stop it. But then there was the issue of how the vote was called.
New York Democrat Charlie Rangel called for a voice vote rather than a roll call vote on the machine gun ban, and it was quickly passed.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) had reportedly allowed the vote to go through as it meant the larger bill would pass. It was truly seen as a win for most gun owners but at the expense of the niche market that sought to own a machine gun.
However, it was soon viewed by many as a mistake after President Ronald Reagan signed it into law. There were concerns it could serve as a precedent that would open the door to restricting civilian access to semi-automatic firearms and within less than a decade, Congress did pass the 1994 Assault Weapon Ban (AWB).
No More “New” Machine Guns
For those who owned a machine gun at the time the law went into effect, it was probably a mixed bag. It meant the number of legal machine guns was set at 630,000—and couldn’t ever increase.
It is important to note too that the law not only made the manufacture of new machine guns illegal but after the 1968 amnesty, it was impossible to register one that hadn’t been legally “papered.”
From 1968 to 1986, the only workaround had been to deactivate a gun and have a dealer with the specific licenses “reactivate” it and register it. Thus a vintage firearm was still considered “new,” but all that ended as well on May 19, 1986.
There have been calls for another amnesty in recent years, especially as the last of the Greatest Generation are dying off, and families are discovering that grandpa may have secretly kept something in the back of the closet beside a stack of old magazines. Such firearms from the Second World War could be worth a literal fortune, yet, any amnesty that could allow those guns to be registered is unlikely to happen with Joe Biden in the White House.
Even when Donald Trump was in office, and the GOP controlled both houses of Congress, the discussions never went very far. The market for those desiring to own a machine gun—and be willing to mortgage the house to pay for one—is simply too small.
Unfortunately, that has meant that some machine guns are as expensive as a new car. It is all because of a bill from the Reagan era that was meant to protect the rights of gun owners.
