An Odd And Sordid History
Amazingly, all this fuss stemmed from an administrative oversight back in 1934. American culture in the 1930s was like a wounded animal. The 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution passed in 1920 and outlawed the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages. Prohibition, as it became known, spawned a subsequent juggernaut of organized crime.
In 1933 the 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition, but ubiquitous underground criminal organizations had already arisen to feed Americans’ voracious appetite for illicit alcohol. Estimates place the number of illegal gin joints in New York City alone at around 100,000. In some locales turf wars caused blood to flow in the streets.
Politicians are always quick to weaponize a crisis. In the face of newsreels trumpeting the gory exploits of motorized bandits wielding Thompson guns or BARs the public clamored for a legislative remedy. The spectacularly flawed result was the 1934 National Firearms Act.
Legislators of the day actually read the Constitution and believed, rightly so, they lacked the constitutional power to ban things outright. What they could do, however, was tax undesirable items into an artificial state of unobtainability. As a result the 1934 NFA imposed a $200 tax on the transfer of firearms deemed to be particularly dangerous. As $200 in 1934 was the equivalent of $3,700 today, this law quite effectively shut down commerce in such stuff as automatic weapons, cannons and sound suppressors. The NFA also defined any rifle with a barrel less than 16″ or any shotgun with a tube less than 18″ to be subject to the same draconian tax.
What is not so well known is the original language of the law purportedly also included a $200 transfer tax on handguns. It was ultimately appreciated the bill would never pass with handguns included, so the handgun provision was struck from the final language. The minimum barrel length stipulations for long guns was included solely because Americans deprived of handguns would inevitably simply shorten their rifles and shotguns as a work-around. Once the handgun provision was removed nobody thought to delete the barrel length minimums so we remain saddled with them even today. It is indeed pretty darn stupid you can buy a pocket pistol freely at a gun shop but a rifle you couldn’t conceal underneath Rosie O’Donnell’s burqa is an instant felony if the barrel falls below 16″.
The same barrel length stipulations for long guns make it illegal to attach a shoulder stock to a handgun. However, the BATF says, “The Bureau has determined that by reason of the date of their manufacture, value, design and other characteristics, the following firearms are primarily collector’s items and are not likely to be used as weapons and, therefore, are excluded from the provisions of the National Firearms Act.” Here we will explore four of these exempted classic hybrid guns.