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Dead Constitution See other Dead Constitution Articles Title: The Unconstitutional NFA An article published by John Lott this week touched upon a subject I’ve been meaning to address for some time here on TBS. The National Firearms Act (NFA) was established in 1934 presumably to combat gangland crime of the era. It came on the heels of the repeal of Prohibition, a law that was so poorly conceived that it gave rise to modern organized crime and nearly crippled our nation. Gangs that previously focused on prostitution, gambling and theft quickly moved into “bootlegging” and as a result massive criminal enterprises sprung up across the nation. With crime, comes violence. A typical knee-jerk reaction to crime has always been to ban firearms, as if they’re responsible for the violence brought about by ill-conceived laws such as Prohibition or the current “war on drugs”. Gangs of the era took a shine to new firearms technology, namely the Thompson sub-machine gun. Infamous characters such as Al Capone or John Dillinger were fans of the handy .45 ACP caliber long arm that sold for $200 at local hardware stores or even through the mail. While violence carried out with Thompson wasn’t nearly as common as Hollywood would have us believe, the general public loved to read stories and watch movies featuring the “Chicago Typewriter” being misused by thugs which contributed to the mystique of the firearm. The truth is, 79 years after the passage of the NFA, Chicago is a far deadlier city than it was in 1929 when Al Capone was on the loose. Looking for a way to cut off the supply of firearms such as the Thompson to criminals without repealing the 2nd Amendment in its entirety, the government decided it would impose a hefty tax on their purchase thereby making them financially unappealing. The reason the NFA tax is set at $200 is because when the NFA was enacted in 1934, the price of a Thompson SMG was also $200 — a price considered to be prohibitively high. While Congress sought to deal the Thompson a deathblow, they also lumped in short barreled rifles, short barreled shotguns, pistols with stocks, suppressors and “any other weapons” (nice catch all) to their little tax scheme. Now think about this for a moment. The government sought to pluck Thompson’s from the hands of cash flush criminals by imposing a $200 tax on firearms, as if they couldn’t afford it. If anyone had enough money to pay the absurd tax, it was the multi-million dollar crime syndicates! The only thing the government accomplished was to effectively ban firearms like the Thompson from law abiding, hard working citizens of modest means. Only the rich, and of course the criminals, could afford them. In essence, the government imposed a tax on our rights. Ironically, from 1934 until 1986, when the Hughes Amendment was passed which banned all newly manufactured machine guns from being sold to civilians, only a handful of crimes were committed with legally owned NFA firearms — less than 5! So where did post 1934 criminals get their firearms? Through illegal black market channels, of course. After all, they’re known as “criminals” for a reason. The NFA is no different than 19th century “poll taxes” that were deemed to be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. Poll taxes were designed to disenfranchise minorities and poor whites and prevent them from voting. The NFA does the exact same thing, it disenfranchises all but the wealthiest Americans and prevents them from exercising their Constitutional rights. As John Lott points out in his article, in 1936 the Supreme Court struck down a 2% tax on newspapers as being unconstitutional. Such a tax, according to the SCOTUS, was a violation of the 1st Amendment. You can’t place a tax on a Constitutionally protected right. Further to that point, this week the SCOTUS decided not to hear a case from Oklahoma that struck down a state law that required women seeking to have an abortion to first have an ultrasound performed. The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that forcing woman to have ultrasounds prior to an abortion created an undue burden. So how is that the NFA stands? It shouldn’t. Clearly the NFA is violation of our Constitutional rights and thus should be repealed. Unfortunately the NFA community is relatively small and their voices are drown out by those pushing other issues into the national headlines. However, groups like Armed Citizens United intend to do all they can to challenge the NFA in court and to turn back this draconian law that tramples the rights of Americans. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: X-15 (#0)
The NFA '34 is the root of all evil when it comes to the 2nd amendment. THE scotus case that allowed it to stand could not have been more flawed. Read here: jpfo.org/filegen-a-m/miller.htm and note I couldn't have more respect for the source or John Lott
“Anti-semitism is a disease–you catch it from Jews”–Edgar J. Steele “The jew cries out in pain, as he strikes you.”–Polish proverb “I would like to express my heartfelt apologies for the unfortunate and tasteless quotes I published in my tag lines. I am very sorry and ashamed. I never wanted to offend anyone, or to encroach human rights."- Hmmmmm
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