There is absolutely no way to paper such a firearm. (These exceptions involve paying for expensive licenses for the importation of certain firearms.) The Act also means it that any “attic finds” that aren’t papered, cannot be papered. There are certain exceptions to the Act, such as law enforcement or importers that supply weapons to law enforcement for example. As a result of the now 32-year-old law, it is only possible to legally own a machine gun that was produced prior to 1986. The Act banned the creation of any new machine guns, including those made with old parts. This has impacted collectors to this day. The second change came in 1986 with the Firearm Owners’ Protection Act. As a result of this amnesty, many older guns - including WWII bring-backs - came out of the woodwork. While it restricted certain weapons, the act made it legal for “new” machine guns to be produced with old parts. 50-inch except for shotguns that were found to be particularly suitable for sporting purposes.įor collectors, the law was seen as a mixed blessing. Also in the category of destructive devices (DDs) was any firearm that had a bore over. The law originally could have regulated pistols and revolvers (thanks to the attempt on FDR), but in the end, it only addressed specific weapons including machine guns, short-barreled rifles (SBRs), short-barreled shotguns (SBSs), and silencers as well as destructive devices including grenades, bombs, poison gas, and other military-grade ordnance. It has limited the availability of automatic weapons in civilian hands ever since. The result was the National Firearms Act of 1934. These two events, along with fears of potential gangland wars, were enough to force lawmakers to consider gun legislation. Then, on February 15, 1933, an assassin attempted to kill President Franklin D.
Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929 in which Thompsons played significant role. Two events in the late 1920s and early 1930s attracted the attention of lawmakers. You couldn’t walk down the streets of Chicago without seeing a dozen gangsters wielding Tommy Guns!
So why is it required that a machine gun be registered or papered with the government? Well, you can blame the gangland violence of the 1920s - but you can also blame some rather ambitious marketing attempts too!Īs any gangster movie made in the past 50 years has shown, there was a lot of violence in the 1920s and criminals everywhere were shooting up banks. These are some of the small details to consider before you “invest” in a machine gun. Even your wife would need to apply to have the firearm transferred via a trust. These are serious investments that won’t be readily inherited by a spouse or children. In either case, this will be another waiting game. You will either need to sell it to a Class III dealer or transfer to another individual.
In addition, even when firing on your own property you should notify law enforcement accordingly.īecause an NFA weapon requires a transfer stamp, it will be equally difficult to sell. Speaking of ranges, machine guns generally can’t be used at most commercial ranges - so you need to go to approved ranges that allow fully automatic weapons. The remaining states do allow ownership of a machine gun, but again, it isn’t as simple as going out and picking one up at Joe’s Machine Gun Emporium or even at the Ohio Valley Military Society’s Show of Shows. If your state wasn’t mentioned above, then you’re actually in luck. Even Nevada and Texas, which are seen as gun-friendly states, have certain restrictions that make buying such a firearm somewhat difficult but not impossible.
(This is where the special Class III license comes up – there are those with such licenses in the aforementioned states, but it is beyond the scope of this article to discuss what is involved apart from saying that it requires a lot of money for the license, which are really intended for firearm importers/dealers not collectors).Īs for the state issue specifically, add to the list Delaware, Washington, D.C., Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin where it virtually impossible to buy or own a machine gun in most cases (see the above license issue). Of the 13 states where it is illegal, California, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts are on top of the list where you simply can’t own one under almost any circumstances as a private citizen. Currently there are actually 37 states where it is legal to buy/own a machine gun. First, you do need to live in the right state(for the purpose of this article we’re only discussing the legality of machine guns in the United States).