Gun Control Case Study:
H.R. 9006 National Firearms
Compelling Policy Question: What should be the goal of gun control policies?
Gun Control Case Study: H.R. 9006, taxation of manufacturers, importers, and dealers in small firearms and machine guns
For the purposes of this act the term "firearm" means a pistol, revolver, shotgun having a barrel less than sixteen inches in length, or any other firearm capable of being concealed on the person, a muffler or silencer therefor, or a machine gun.
A "machine gun" is any weapon which shoots automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single trigger pull.
Sec. 2. (a) every importer, manufacturer, and dealer in firearms shall register with the IRS and pay a special tax.
(b) It shall be unlawful for any person required to register under the provisions of this section to not pay the tax.
Sec. 3. (a) There shall be a tax of $5,000 a year on importers or manufacturers of firearms, a $200 a year tax on dealers, a $200 fee for each machine gun sold, and $1 tax on any other firearm.*
Sec. 7. Each manufacturer and importer of a firearm shall identify it with a number or other identification mark.
Sec. 8. Importers, manufacturers, and dealers shall keep records of all firearm transactions.
Sec. 13. Any person who violates or fails to comply with any of the requirements of this act shall, upon conviction, be fined not more than $2,000 or be imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both, in the discretion of the court.
Sec. 17. This act may be cited as the "National Firearms Act."
*Note that in 1934, a Thompson machine gun costs $200, so a tax of $200 would make it even less affordable. $200 in 1934 is worth $3,658.06 in 2017.
Historical Context:
In 1789 the James Madison, a member of the First Congress, proposes a series of amendments to the new Constitution based on the requests of the States that had just ratified the Constitution. His fourth suggested amendment read,
"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; ; a well armed, and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country; but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms, shall be compelled to render military service in person"
Congress debated Madison's proposed Amendments, and then sent 12 amendments to the States for ratification, including one saying, “A well regulated Militia, being the best necessary to the security of a free state the rights of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. "
In 1920 retired U.S Army officer John Thompson patents the Thompson Sub-machine gun. Following the creation of the 18th Amendment and Prohibition, the competition for control over the illegal liquor trade led to a growth in organized crime. The competition between these gangs led to violence, and the Thompson Sub-machine was a weapon of choice (the "Tommy-gun" was also nicknamed the "Chicago Typewriter"). One of the most famous gangland incidents was the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929.
Watch the newsreel clip imbedded in the NPR article to the right, or follow this link: https://www.npr.org/2016/06/30/484215890/prohibition-era-gang-violence-spurred-congress-to-pass-first-gun-law?jwsource=cl
in addition, there was an attempted assassination of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.
H.R.9006 was first Introduced in the House as H.R. 9741 by Robert L. Doughton (D–NC) on May 28, 1934.
Supporting Question #1: Why do some support the United States government regulating guns?
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, … this bill is... designed to enable the Department of Justice to deal with what I think is generally recognized as a very serious national emergency.
The development of late years of the predatory criminal... has created a situation which is giving concern to all who are interested in law and order.
I am prepared to say... there are at least 500,000 of these people who are waring against society (with) weapons of the most deadly character.
Now to deal with that situation, of course, requires thought and study.... The amount of public interest in this effort to suppress crime is astounding.
Now, we have established in our Department an organization to... concentrate on a program that is constitutional, that is reasonable... At the same time, we have endeavored to provide the means for meeting this very real problem.
I do not know exactly how this bill will work out. Nobody can tell. We must feel our way through these big problems.
A sawed-off shotgun is one of the most dangerous and deadly weapons. A machine gun, of course, ought never to be in the hands of any private individual. There is not the slightest excuse for it, not the least in the world, and we must, if we are going to be successful in this effort to suppress crime in America, take these machine guns out of the hands of the criminal class.
J. Weston Allen, Testimony to House Committee on Ways and Means during hearings on H.R. 9006, 1934 (modified/link to original)
Allen was Chairman of the National Crime Commission
There will never be efficient control of firearms in this country until State and Federal legislation succeed in securing, in some form, registration of firearms which are possessed by the people in the United States. That is, until we can have that information the police and all those who believe in the adequate control of firearms are at a disadvantage.
This bill provides in a most admirable way for this registration. It provides for no penalty; it simply says to the citizen, "you should and must register your firearms so that we can know where the firearms live in this country."
Those who say that “you are going to take the pistol away from the innocent man, you are going to stop him from protecting his home, but you are never going to get the guns away from the criminals,” are unreasonable and foolish. Gentlemen, this country has not yet come to realize how much can be done to make the possession of a gun by a criminal a very serious thing for him. This bill is going to put the criminal behind the bars where he cannot be a gunman any more.
Of course, the gunman is not going to register. That is the reason why the registration is useful. Even if you cannot prove he has committed an act of violence, if he owns a gun you can put him away for 5 years, and unless he has a wooden pistol, he will not make trouble for 5 years.
Machine Gun Control, The Waco News-Tribune, 1933
In 1934, members of Congress were shown a chart with Homicide statistics for the United States, and some foreign countries from 1920-1932
Massacre 7 of Moran Gang, The Chicago Daily News
This newspaper article is covering the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre", which was the name given to a mob killing on February 14, 1929 in Chicago. Seven members of the Moran Gang were lined against a wall and killed with a "tommy gun".
Supporting Question #2: Why do some oppose the United States government regulating guns?
In 1934 NRA President Karl T. Frederick gave a testimony to the House Committee on Ways and Means during hearings on H.R. 9006, during which he said...
Frederick was the President of the National Rifle Association
[T]his bill, practically speaking, destroys the business in firearms of 95 percent of the dealers.
[T]he practical result (of this bill) will be that the countryman... will be unable to secure a weapon that he needs for his own defense and the defense of his home and family.
In my opinion... results which can be accomplished by firearms legislation are extremely limited.
I think that under the Constitution the United States has no jurisdiction to legislate in a police sense with respect to firearms. I think that is exclusively a matter for State regulation...
Automobiles are a much more essential instrument of crime than pistols. Any police officer will tell you that. They are much more dangerous to ordinary life, because they kill approximately 30,000 people a year.
I am president of the National Rifle Association and I think I correctly voice its views.
I am just as much against the gangster as any man. I am just as much interested in seeing him suppressed, but I do not believe that we should burn down the barn in order to destroy the rats. I am in favor of some more skillful method of getting the rats without destroying the barn. In my opinion, most of the proposals the regulation of firearms... do not reach the crook at all, but they do reach the honest man.
[I]f you destroy the effective opposition of... (law-abiding citizens), you are inevitably going to increase crime...
If you cannot keep guns out of the hands of criminals in jails, I do not see how you can keep them out of the hands of criminals...
The National Rifle Association is… organized for the purpose of promoting small-arms practice.... It is composed of individual members and of affiliate groups, that is, shooting clubs, etc. Our membership runs into the hundreds of thousands all over the country.
Letter to members of the National Rifle Association of America, signed C. B. Lister, Secretary-Treasurer, 1934
A personal letter or telegram of yourself and every sportsman in America objecting to the bill is necessary if we are to wage a successful fight. With your help we killed the Copeland bill, but the committee thinks this one, H.R. 9066 is going to be harder to kill.
Few Congressmen will have time to notice it and within a year after the passage of House bill 9066 every rifle and shotgun owner in the country will find himself paying a special tax and having himself fingerprinted and photographed for the Federal rogues gallery every time he buys or sells a gun of any description.
Frank C. Nichols, Testimony to House Committee on Ways and Means during hearings on H.R. 9006, 1934 (modified/link to original)
Nichols was the Vice President of Colt Patent Firearms Company
I doubt very much, gentlemen. if, under this measure we would be justified in continuing in this small arms business.
We might stop making and selling pistols. I wonder if you gentlemen want that brought about. We were very valuable to the Government during the war. We cannot maintain a plant to assist the Government in case of war, unless we can stay in the business. We have been in business nearly 100 years, an honorable business and a legitimate business. We have used the utmost care in the distribution and sale of our product.
I am not a lawyer; I am a plain, ordinary businessman, and sometimes I think not a very good one.
The other point I wanted to touch upon is this: That the rascals that the Department of Justice wants to get hold of is a difficult matter. The first thing the racketeer and the bad man does when he gets hold of a gun, and they won't buy it, is to chisel out every identifying mark on the weapon.
I cannot get through my head where the matter of registration, the licensing, the fingerprinting, photographing, if you please, are going to get that bad man or help to get him.
Seth Gordon, Testimony to House Committee on Ways and Means during hearings on H.R. 9006, 1934 (modified/link to original)
Gordon was President of the American Game Association, which was an organization for hunters
The 6,000,000 sportsmen in the United States are quite perturbed about the possible effect of this piece of legislation. I am sure that I voice their sentiment when I say that every one of those 6,000,000 would like to see legislation that will control and absolutely regulate the possession of the machine gun and submachine gun, but when you go beyond that you are going to infringe upon the traditional rights of the sportsmen of America who have stood behind this country in time of need. Every time we have had trouble they have come to front more quickly than any other class of people. I think you do not need to pass any legislation so drastic as this bill is in its present form but that it should be restricted to machine guns.
When you go into pistols and sidearms that sportsmen carry on their hunting trips and require them every time they cross a State line to get a permit in order to do it, there will be 6,000,000 sportsmen opposed to it.
When you speak about a gun shorter than 18 inches or 20 or 22 inches, that is one thing. If you include a gun which happens to have the end of the barrel blown off because someone got snow or mud in it, and the barrels are cut off and they continue to use it, as they do in the country, it is another thing. You have to be careful when you say sawed-off shotgun so that you do not include a gun which is still useful.
During this time period, E.E. Richardson ran an advertisement for the Thompson gun.
Richardson was a Thompson Gun distributor based in Maumee, Ohio
What were the results of the debate?
After some amendments H.R. 9006 was passed and became known as the “National Firearms Act of 1934”
Since the passing of the Firearms Act gun restrictions have continued to be a hotly debated topic.
Some of the milestones in gun restriction legislation include:
1939: Supreme Court upholds a federal ban on sawed-off shotguns, implying that the Founding Fathers adopted the amendment to ensure the then-new federal government could not disarm state militias.
1968: Congress passes the Gun Control Act. The law calls for better control of interstate traffic of firearms. Lee Harvey Oswald used a mail-order gun to assassinate President John F. Kennedy.
1976 D.C. City Council bars residents from owning handguns.
1986: The Firearm Owner's Protection Act is approved by Congress. The law prohibits felons from owning or possessing guns or ammunition. The Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act is also passed. It prohibits the manufacturing, importing and selling of ammunition that can penetrate a bulletproof vest.
1993: Congress passes the The Brady Handgun Violence Act, establishing the National Instant Criminal Background Check System gun dealers are to use before selling a gun. The law is named after former White House Press Secretary James Brady, who was shot in the head during the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.
1994: The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act becomes law. The law banned the manufacture, use, possession and import of 19 types of assault weapons, including AK-47s and Uzis. The law expired in 2004.
2007: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rules in favor of Dick Anthony Heller, 66, an armed security guard who sues the district after it rejects his application to keep a handgun at his home in Capitol Hill. District appeals to Supreme Court.
June 2008: The Supreme Court upholds the lower court ruling, striking down D.C. handgun ban as unconstitutional.