Bill introduced to abolish NFA :: 07/23/2022

I’ve been sitting on news about the introduction of a bill for several days waiting for more details to come out. On July 15th, 2022 HR 8399 – To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the National Firearms Act was introduced by Congressman Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina. The bill, which rolled out without any press release or fanfare, is finally available.

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the National Firearms Act.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. REPEAL OF NATIONAL FIREARMS ACT.

Chapter 53 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, and the item relating to such chapter in the table of chapters for subtitle E, are hereby repealed.

The arrival of the bill text offered not much more than the title did. The bill, should it become law, would abolish the National Firearms Act completely. Most Second Amendment supporters and self-identifying gun buffs know exactly what the National Firearms Act refers to, but for those who aren’t as familiar with the scope of what the act covers, here’s a simple explanation put out by the NRA.

National Firearms Act (NFA)

The National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) requires the registration, with the federal government, of fully-automatic firearms (termed “machineguns”), rifles and shotguns that have an overall length under 26 inches, rifles with a barrel under 16 inches, shotguns with a barrel under 18 inches, and firearm sound suppressors (termed “silencers”). The Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) placed “destructive devices” (primarily explosives and the like, but also including firearms over .50 caliber, other than most shotguns) under the provisions of the NFA. In 1994, the Treasury Department placed revolving-cylinder shotguns and one semi-automatic shotgun under the NFA.

The GCA prohibited the importation of fully-automatic firearms for private purposes and a 1986 amendment to the Act prohibited the domestic manufacture of fully-automatics for private purposes. However, short-barreled rifles and shotguns have becoming increasingly popular for home defense and defensive-skills-based marksmanship training and competitions, and sound suppressors have become increasingly popular for marksmanship training and competitions, and for hunting.

To have no more taxes levied against machineguns, silencers, short barrelled rifles and shotguns, etc. is commonsense.

When the National Firearms Act was introduced in 1934 there was the tiptoeing around the Constitutionality of the provisions in the law. The tiptoeing would amount to the opposite of commonsense and, in my opinion, would be smoke and mirrors. Wading through National Firearms Act: Hearings, Seventy-third Congress, Second Session, on HR 9066 will show the clever word salad workaround which made the National Firearms Act what we know of it today with minimal question.