ATF Quietly Ruled Shoulder Stocked Pistols are “Short Barreled Rifles” in 1961

AmmoLand ^ | September 24, 2021 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

A proposed rule change about arm braces on pistols prompted this correspondent to research the history of shoulder stocks, pistols, and the National Firearms Act (NFA).

When the National Firearms Act of 1934 was passed, pistols with shoulder stocks were not mentioned. Short barreled rifles were not intended to be in the law. They were inserted at the insistence of a confused congressman on the House Ways and Means Committee.

Fitting a pistol with a shoulder stock had always been an option.  The 1934 NFA was imagined to be regulating shotguns which had been shortened to create concealable, awkward pistols, not pistols that had a stock added to them, creating a carbine more accurate, but less concealable than a regular pistol.

The primary targets of the 1934 bill had been pistols, revolvers, sawed-off shotguns, silencers, and machine guns. Through lobbying by the NRA and concerned citizens all over the country, pistols and revolvers were taken out of the bill.

page 1 of H.R. 9066 hearing on 16 April 1934

The resulting law regulated things most people did not have.

Homer Cummings was the first Attorney General of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) administration.  Cummings pushed hard for national restrictions on firearms. He had a long run as Attorney General. Cummings helped engineer the U.S. v. Miller test case of the law before he left office in 1939.  Cummings is credited with many of the laws which vastly expanded Federal power in criminal matters.

The economic failures of the New Deal, and then World War II, removed most interest in the National Firearms Act. For many years, there was little enforcement. Returning servicemen brought back war trophies of shoulder-stocked Mauser and Luger pistols.

[marktwain]

Adding a stock to a pistol makes it less concealable. Including shoulder stocked pistols in the NFA was always stupid.

[Spktyr]

NFA34 was stupid to begin with, fueled by yellow journalism, pulp novels and radio dramas, not based in reality.

[marktwain]

Image courtesy of Rock Island Auctions

[marktwain]

It was FDR's AG, Homer Cummings who pushed it. The push for more and more "gun control" stopped when he left the AG's office.

WWII had something to do with it as well.

Cummings was an arrogant do-gooder of the first order.

[Spktyr]

They hired someone named Homer, of course it wasn’t going to go well. :P

[FreedomPoster]

So a WWII trophy broom handle Mauser with a detachable shoulder stock has been variously illegal and legal, but is currently legal, by bureaucratic edict? Do I have that right?

NFA of 1934 and all the follow on infringements need to be torn down.

[ptsal]

Bkmk revolver

[Fido969]

Is it illegal when the stock is separate? Does it become illegal only when the stock is attached?

[Yo-Yo]

When the National Firearms Act of 1934 was passed, pistols with shoulder stocks were not mentioned. Short barreled rifles were not intended to be in the law. They were inserted at the insistence of a confused congressman on the House Ways and Means Committee.

The way I understood the history of the NFA, Short Barreled Shotguns and Short Barreled Rifles were included because originally handguns were also to be included in the NFA $200 tax stamp scheme. If handguns were "taxed" (effectively banned,) then sawed off rifles and shotguns which would be just as concealable as handguns also had to be "taxed" (banned.)

At the insistence of the NRA, the handgun clause was removed from the NFA at the last minute, but SBSs and SBRs remained.

https://books.google.com/books?id=H_RrLyV9rDUC&pg=PA545#v=onepage&q&f=false

The legislation would use the tax power as a means to impose near-prohibitory controls on machines guns and handguns. (The National Rifle Association dropped its opposition to the proposal following a compromise in which handguns were removed from the bill.)

[Yo-Yo]

Nevermind. I read your fine complete article at Ammoland, and I see now that you specifically were talking about SBRs. I went to the linked article that described in detail how Representative Harold Knutson, of Minnesota, inserted short barreled rifles into the NFA legislation.

(EPIC Failure ~ Short Barreled Rifles Were NOT Intended to be Regulated by NFA)

[pierrem15]

The fact that a Federal agency claims the authority to make a rule that converts millions of Americans into instant felons with no change in the law is the main problem.

The same is true about thousands of other regulations that are not clearly instances of law. Congress has no authority to convey its power to make law onto executive agencies, no matter how much responsibility it wishes to duck.

[pierrem15]

Besides the obvious 2nd Amendment violation, there is also the issue as to whether Congress has the power to ban the possession of anything.

It clearly has the power to prevent something from crossing the border or state lines, but the mere possession of something is a matter of state authority under the Commerce Clause, not Federal authority.

[Joe Brower]

‘Stupid’? No. Evil and tyrannical? Yes.

[dynachrome]

“but is currently legal, by bureaucratic edict?”

My understanding (and I did not stay at a Holiday Inn) is that original, period stocks are legal, but putting on a repro sock is not? Firing it without a stock is ok, of course.

[gundog]

[Pilgrim's Progress]

Didn’t Homer write that famous book, “Ilied”?

[mad_as_he$$]

Ahhh...one of my family heirlooms. Very cool setup and not easy to shoot if you have “long arms”.

[refermech]

Wonder if this applies to air pistols? Have a couple of the crossman models stocks. Fun to shoot and accurate.

[marktwain]

No, does not apply to air pistols or to non-cartridge arms such as the percussion revolver shown in the picture.

[Spktyr]

IIRC, there’s a list of stocked pistols on the C&R list that are excepted from NFA, whether the stock is original or not.