1934 NFA, the Failed 1938 NFA, Miller, and the Regulation of Gun Parts

AmmoLand ^ | 25 February, 2020 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

LPublic Document Case heading, cropped and scaled by Dean Weingarten

Many Second Amendment supporters have heard of the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934. It went into effect on 26 June, 1934.  It was the first national gun law to have a substantially limiting effect. It was the first federal statute challenged in the Supreme Court on the basis of the Second Amendment, in United States v. Miller. The story of that challenge may be read, in short form, on an AmmoLand News article from 2013.

Far fewer people are familiar with the National Firearms Act of 1938. The NFA of 1934 was passed in Franklin Delano Roosevelt's (FDR) first term. The case that challenged it was set up in 1938, it is believed, to curb resistance to the National Firearms Act of 1938, passed in FDR's second term.

The infamous National Firearms Act of 1934 required commercial manufacturers to stamp serial numbers on machine guns, silencers, and short-barreled rifles and short-barreled shotguns manufactured from that date on.A rare Welrod Mark II Clandestine Pistol with Integral Silencer, 1938

Few people worried about the law because it only affected items that crossed state lines. Not many people owned machine guns or silencers; few crossed state lines with them or short-barreled rifles or shotguns. Because of concerns about constitutionality, the NFA of 1934 was a gun ban disguised as a tax. The transfer tax of $200 was equivalent to about $3,800 in 2018. It was prohibitive for all but the very well off. Consequently, it raised very little money.

[marktwain]

The 1938 NFA paved the way for GCA 1968. The Miller case was set up to short circuit Constitutional challenges of the NFA.

[riverrunner]

When communist/progressives/liberals want power they lie all the time.

[USCG SimTech]

This clearly demonstrates the problem with decisions on cases being majority determined by precedent cases instead of original intent AT THE TIME A LAW WAS PLACED INTO EFFECT. Same happens with social threads on the internet. It’s like a game of telephone. Several phases downstream never have anything to do with the original implemented conversation or law.

[Yo-Yo]

One small nit: It is the Federal Firearms Act of 1938.

[publiusF27]

From the Miller decision:

Considering Sonzinsky v. United States (1937), 300 U. S. 506, 300 U. S. 513, and what was ruled in sundry causes arising under the Harrison Narcotic Act [Footnote 2] -- United States v. Jin Fuey Moy (1916), 241 U. S. 394, United States v. Doremus (1919), 249 U. S. 86, 249 U. S. 94; Linder v. United States (1925), 268 U. S. 5; Alston v. United States (1927), 274 U. S. 289; Nigro v. United States (1928), 276 U. S. 332 -- the objection that the Act usurps police power reserved to the States is plainly untenable.

The Harrison Narcotic Act precedents foreclosed the possibility of a ruling that a regulation disguised as a tax was a constitutional problem, something Justice Roberts reaffirmed in the Obamacare case.

It wasn't the last time that gun grabbers followed the legal trails blazed by drug warriors. Gonzalez v Raich led directly and immediately to the ruling in US v Stewart that a homegrown machine gun for personal use is covered under the commerce clause.

[marktwain]

One small nit: It is the Federal Firearms Act of 1938.

I suspect you are correct, but the site where I found the actual act referred to it as the National Firearms Act of 1938.

[TBP]

Repeal all of the above.

[Yo-Yo]

The source is from Homicide.Northwestern.edu, and the document is a .pdf scan of the original statute, but the cover page is contemporary, and most likely is in error.

I also found one Washington Post article from 2012 that called it the National Firearms Act of 1938:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/history-of-gun-control-legislation/2012/12/22/80c8d624-4ad3-11e2-9a42-d1ce6d0ed278_story.html

However, every other source, including government sources, refer to it as the Federal Firearms Act of 1938.

for example, here is a Congressional Research Service report that discusses firearm laws that was written in 2019:

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R45629

A few years later, Congress enacted the Federal Firearms Act of 1938 (FFA), which created a licensing scheme for the manufacture, importation, and sale of firearms and established limited categories of persons who could not possess firearms.¹⁰ The FFA eventually was superseded, however, by the more comprehensive Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA).¹¹ In addition to expanding the FFA’s licensing scheme and categories of prohibited persons—which largely had been restricted to certain criminals—the GCA augmented the criminal penalties available for violations and established procedures for obtaining relief from firearm disabilities.¹²

[marktwain]

Yes.

My research confirms what you found.

I issued a correction on the original article.