National Firearms Act

National Firearms Act
Great Seal of the United States
Long titleAn Act to provide for the taxation of manufacturers, importers, and dealers in certain firearms and machine guns, to tax the sale or other disposal of such weapons, and to restrict importation and regulate interstate transportation thereof.
Acronyms (colloquial)NFA
NicknamesNational Firearms Act of 1934
Enacted bythe 73rd United States Congress
EffectiveJuly 26, 1934[1]
Citations
Public lawPub. L. 73–474
Statutes at Large48 Stat. 1236
Codification
Titles amended26 U.S.C.: Internal Revenue Code
U.S.C. sections createdI.R.C. ch. 53 § 5801 et seq.
Legislative history
United States Supreme Court cases

The National Firearms Act (NFA), 73rd Congress, Sess. 2, ch. 757, 48 Stat. 1236 was enacted on June 26, 1934, and currently codified and amended as I.R.C. ch. 53. The law is an Act of Congress in the United States that, in general, imposes an excise tax on the manufacture and transfer of certain firearms and mandates the registration of those firearms. The NFA is also referred to as Title II of the federal firearms laws, with the Gun Control Act of 1968 ("GCA") as Title I.

All transfers of ownership of registered NFA firearms must be done through the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (the "NFA registry").[2] The NFA also requires that the permanent transport of NFA firearms across state lines by the owner must be reported to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Temporary transports of some items, most notably suppressors (also referred to as silencers), do not need to be reported.

  1. ^ See http://legisworks.org/congress/73/publaw-474.pdf Archived 2016-07-05 at the Wayback Machine "This Act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after the date of its enactment."
  2. ^ See 26 U.S.C. § 5841.