Expanding My Ideas On The Upcoming NFA Legislation and Thoughts On It

Greetings and Salutations!
Whelp yesterday’s discussion here was pretty good. It would seem that I don’t have any Lawyers who’re willing to speak out about the subject of “homebrewed” toys. Not that I blame them around this here place… this’s a rough neighborhood and under surveillance if the statistics are reading correctly.

LOTS of pings from the Virginia Area of Operations on the regular so to speak, as well as… well… I should say until a few nights ago, from Israel. Unless some of you clowns are VPN’ing out of Tel Aviv that is.

Tonight there’s like NO Middle Eastern Visitors in the house, or at least so far.
Things that make you go Hmmmn…

Aye that…

Methinks they are either too busy or the RUMINT about the Unit 8200 Mossad HQ taking a solid Hypersonic hit is real.

Either way…

Now as to clarifying what exactly the current legislation means in regards to the ‘WHY’ of my question. It is, from what I can read, as well as from what I’ve watched on the GunTuber’s channels, is that the repeal of the National Firearms Act excise taxes on suppressors/short barrel rifles/short barreled shotguns/and AOWs. This means two things.

1) It literally does what it means. That is it repeals and removes the odious $200 Tax Stamp nominally (for now) required to purchase a suppressor/short barrel rifle/short barreled shotgun/and AOW. The biggest obstacle to buying one of these happy-fun-time toys is getting the tax stamp. It’s a particularly loooong and punishing set of steps to get what amounts to a ‘checkbox’ for you to own and possess an “NFA” item. Literally getting the stamp is part of the punishment so to speak. Back in the day, said punishment (as I explained) was financial more than anything else. Now? It’s a time-thing as the ATF seemed to willfully and intentionally d-r-a-g out he process which made your average purchaser think twice about buying on.

2) And then: By removing the stamp, and declaring them the same as a “firearm or firearm accessory” in purchasing it, you ONLY have to do a ‘standard Form 4473’ to get approval to buy it. Depending on your background check, this can take as little as 30 minutes, or like in my case, a day as the “Imperial Entanglements” tend to make my purchases a wee bit more difficult. Ergo: by ‘declassifying’ them as ‘firearm or firearm accessories’ that means that you can “homebrew your own” so to speak.

Now with that explained, I have to describe the various forms involved. A standard Form 4473 is used during the purchase of a firearm. The short version is that a Form 4473’s (also known as a Firearms Transaction Record) “primary purpose is to document the purchase or transfer of a firearm from a licensed dealer (FFL) to a purchaser, and to ensure compliance with federal laws regarding firearm sales. This form acts as a record of the transaction, verifying the buyer’s identity, eligibility to purchase, and the specific firearm involved.”

This is not a “registration” per se.
Leastways that’s what the Feds say.

HOWEVER a Form 4473 DOES record the transaction, and notes the purchase and IF the person that is purchasing the firearm is NOT a “prohibited person” per the ATF and Federal Law via the NCIS check that they perform. NCIS stands for National Instant Criminal Background Check System. If you pass that OR already have a concealed carry license in your state (if applicable), then you’re good to go.

So this means that

THEORETICALLY the 4473 is NOT supposed to be a ‘registry’.
The Form 4473 serves as Legal Documentation for the purchase of your weapon. A completed and properly maintained Form 4473 serves as legal documentation of the firearm transfer and is retained by the FFL for a specified period.  Per the ATF, that period?

The dealer must keep the Form 4473 on file for the lifetime of the FFL, and is required to surrender the log book to the ATF upon retirement from the firearms business. The ATF is allowed to inspect, as well as request a copy of, the Form 4473 from the dealer during the course of a criminal investigation.

And mind you, they do.

An example from personal experience:

I had a run-in tangentially with the ATF when a rifle I had sold turned up in a crime in Miami. I had sold one of the NCOs an AR that I had built back when I was an armorer. Like 5 years later, I got a call from GunGirl to come down to the shop, as there were “people with badges who wanted to talk to me.”

She gave me the low-down via text so that I didn’t freak and to allow me to prepare, and I immediately grabbed my paperwork. I thankfully, as I do with any of my sales, kept a copy of the sales receipt, as well as a copy of the dudes drivers license, which I require when I do a ‘person-to-person’ transfer juuuuuust to cover my ass. The reader who won my Ishapore?

Yep. I got a receipt AND a copy of his license.

You positively have to do this when even possibly dealing with the Imperials. To do anything less would be retarded. Like them.

I was fine… TBH the ATF guys in question were OK.
Surprised the fuck out of me.
I expected Jackboots and Blackjacks.
I gave them what then wanted, and that was it.

A while later, I got word from GunGirl. Seems that they went and chased down this NCO, who in turn had sold it a year later, to a guy who from what I heard had reported it ‘stolen.’ It was ‘off the radar’ until not long after THAT, it turned up after a Mass Shooting in Miami (which sucks).

At least I can say I dindu nuffin. They (the ATF) HAD gotten the ‘trace back’ to the manufacturer via the serial number, who in turn said “…we sold it to GunGirl’s shop”, and then they had checked her 4473s, and found lil ole Me.

It wasn’t like they pulled up a gun registry and knew -I- was the owner of the rifle initially. In fact it wasn’t even the rifle, as I had built this one and it was a Carbon Fiber lower I had tried out and purely hated… which is why I sold the fucker.

It had too much ‘flex’ in the lower… it made me realize the majority of rifles due to their size need to be made of of metal, unlike a Glock or ‘other’ handgun. That’s just my opinion man…

So anyways, The ATF? They had to do the good old fashion “chase the lead down” police work. For which TBH proved that they didn’t have a National Registry as they had to actually go to GunGirl, and ask “who bought this?” So no, (FOR NOW) there’s no centralized gun registry.

Which leads me to my ORIGINAL HYPOTHESIS.

Now because they’re changing the status of the suppressors/short barrel rifles/short barreled shotguns/and AOWs, and ONLY requiring a Form 4473 and since there is NO official “gun registry” well then… since an 80% rifle/pistol that you make at home DO NOT NEED a 4473, wouldn’t it be reasonable to think that since they’re getting rid of the tax stamp requirement which requires a Form 4 to get, that a “homebrewed” suppressor/short barrel rifle/short barreled shotgun/and AOW would be EXEMPT from any filing requirement?

I do.

See… the Form 4 is what you need to get your Tax Stamp.

THAT then creates a TAX RECORD which IS a registry of sorts.

Now, to “homebrew” a ‘toy’? Currently one needs an ATF Form 5320.1 which is better known as a “Form 1” which is a form for the “Application to Make and Register a Firearm”. It is used by individuals who are not licensed Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL) to manufacture or modify National Firearms Act (NFA) firearms. This includes items like silencers (suppressors), short-barreled rifles (SBRs), short-barreled shotguns (SBSs), and Any Other Weapons (AOWs). 

To MY line of thought:
Since they’re essentially removing the NFA Classification for suppressors/short barrel rifles/short barreled shotguns/and AOWs in order to get rid of the tax, which thereby eliminates the need for a Form 4, wouldn’t it follow that this would ALSO invalidate the need for one to fill out a Form 1?

I mean if they’re no longer NFA Items, well then so much for any forms at all as building a firearm at home REQUIRES NO PAPERWORK WHATSOEVER?

Why require a form to build something that’s no longer an NFA Item?
Right?
Maybe it’s a case of wishful thinking
But I do that a lot.

I mean they might still require a Form 1, but those were intended to ADD THEM to the Tax Stamp Requirement, which according to the potential new ruling, means that there would be no Tax Requirement hence eliminating the Form 1, as well as the Form 4. It’s going to be interesting to say the least.

Like I said, I’m not a lawyer and have ZERO interest in being the test case for this. To me this’s a purely mental exercise. That and I also DO look forward to cheaper and more plentiful ‘toys’ out there to purchase. The main reason I haven’t bought any of the above is that the price range is, as I stated last night, extortionist in my opinion. As I stated before, I just know Palmetto State is positively drooling at the thought of this happening.

So let me know your ideas and thoughts now that I’ve expanded on it. Maybe you have better ideas or insights?

More Later
Big Country