NFA (National Firearms Act)

The **National Firearms Act of 1934** was the first federal law regulating firearms in the modern American sense. It imposed a $200 tax stamp (unchanged since 1934, which is its own kind of history) on the transfer and making of a specific list of items: **suppressors**, **short-barreled rifles (SBRs)**, **short-barreled shotguns (SBSs)**, **machineguns**, **Any Other Weapons (AOWs)**, and **destructive devices**. Modern NFA compliance means filing forms with the ATF — **Form 4** to buy an existing NFA item from a dealer, **Form 1** to manufacture one yourself, **Form 3** for dealer-to-dealer transfers — and paying the tax stamp for each transfer. Wait times for approval have ranged from a few weeks to over a year depending on the era. The **Hughes Amendment** (1986) froze civilian-transferable machineguns to those registered before May 19, 1986, creating the small and extraordinarily expensive market for civilian-legal full-auto firearms that exists today.