Trump Administration Should Make Use of NFA Amnesty

AmmoLand ^ | December 9, 2024 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

President Trump has a tool to push for the passage of legislation, such as the Hearing Protection Act. The executive branch, specifically the Secretary of the Treasury, can unilaterally declare an amnesty for people registering NFA items with the ATF. Congress passed the Gun Control Act of 1968 under enormous pressure from President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. At the same time, Congress passed a statute authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to declare amnesties to allow people to register items covered by the act.

There are limitations. A single amnesty cannot last for longer than 90 days. The Secretary of the Treasury must announce the amnesty in the Federal Register before the amnesty takes effect. From PUBLIC LAW 90-619-OCT. 22, 1968, found on page 1236 of United States Statutes at Large Volume 82:

(d) The Secretary of the Treasury, after publication in the Federal Register of his intention to do so, is authorized to establish such periods of amnesty, not to exceed ninety days in the case of any single period, and immunity from liability during any such period, as the Secretary determines will contribute to the purposes of this title. TITLE III — AMENDMENTS TO TITLE VII OF THE OMNIBUS CRIME CONTROL AND SAFESTREETS ACT OF 1968

The law does not appear to have been altered or repealed since 1968. The first amnesty was for only 30 days. No other amnesty has been put in place, which this author knows of, since that time.

[marktwain]

The Secretary of the Treasury has this power. It could be a tool for the Trump administration to use.

[circlecity]

Ain’t gonna happen. While I don’t believe Trump would support congressional gun control efforts., I don’t see him unilaterally doing anything to enhance gun rights.

[ConservativeMind]

Dean, you jump around a bit in this article, while also not spelling out a few acronyms. The content is good, though.

Please consider unraveling NFA and SBR. Also, you don’t describe up front much about the concept of the amnesty and why that matters for hearing protection. Instead, you jump into declaring an amnesty and it sounds like it will let people do a lot more than something with hearing. You mean to say noise suppressors / “silencers” are the bugaboo you are referencing and that an amnesty would let everyone buy these and also claim ones they “illegally” already have. It would also let people buy automatics or place the mechanisms into their current guns, I assume. You don’t clearly talk to this, though.

Your articles are usually better structured, sir. Please consider a few tweaks to this.

[marktwain]

Thanks for the constructive criticism.

I usually explain acronyms on the first usage.