Good question

Ry points out:

The April 2009 edition of the NFA Handbook has removed pin & weld from the methods that are allowed to extend barrels to the minimum (16″ rifle, 18″ shotgun) length to avoid paying an SBR/SBS tax.

And asks:

What happens to the millions of barrels out there that were pinned and welded?

It’s possible that 100s of thousands of criminals were just created by a simple regulation change without even a whisper of notice in Congress. Is it tin-foil hat time? Or are they really out to get me?

Ayn Rand indeed.

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7 thoughts on “Good question

  1. It’s actually better than that – if you look at the PDF files, they have copied and pasted the relevent shotgun section (from 2.1.1) into the rifle section (2.1.3), meaning that by strict interpretation, there’s no legal way listed to extend a rifle barrel to 16″ listed.

  2. “Don’t tell me, it’s retroactive too…”

    Is there some way of positively determining the age of a weld?

    Look at it this way; if F-Troop wasn’t busy making lists upon lists, and changing the restrictions constantly, harassing honest Americans and trampling the constitution, what else could they do for a living? Think of it as a jobs program for miscreants. Otherwise they’d be out busting in doors and burgling people’s homes. Oh, wait…

  3. Guns with those modifications are no longer exempt from the SBR/SBS. So, if you buy one from somebody after the regulation, you have to pay that tax.

    What you have suggested, though is some kind of ongoing tax. If they change the tax rules, then you will somehow breaking the law just by owning the gun. That’s a great idea. People pay property tax yearly. Why not have a gun tax? I am going to write to someone in Congress and suggest this idea. The right to bear arms does not imply that there should be no yearly tax on those arms! A firearms tax can pay for the extra costs involved in enforcing gun related laws, and can benefit gun owners by making them proud to be tax-paying gun-owners.

  4. Tommy, you don’t understand. (From Ry) There are two classes of NFA items: tax paid and contraband. You cannot move from contraband to tax paid status (that is to say, you can’t make an item before you pay the tax). This change may have just made 100s of thousands of guns into contraband.

  5. Oh, and another thing. The “yearly tax on guns” has come up before. It’s nothing new. It’s also not new that this would require registration and taxation on a specific enumerated right. That won’t fly in the courts anymore than registration and taxation of all Jews, homosexuals, or blacks would.

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