Before the Democrats took control of Congress again, NRA was pushing a bill in Congress to prevent exactly this kind of thing from happening. That bill was known as the Veterans Heritage Firearms Act, which would grant power to the Attorney General to offer a very limited amnesty to allow new registration for machine guns so that historic pieces like this Lewis Gun, and the German machine gun captured by Sergeant Alvin York, could find their way into museums and firearms collections where they belong, rather than having to be destroyed, or held by police departments indefinitely. I would think this is the kind of reasonable gun law we can all get behind. There’s effectively zero chance these firearms are going to end up in the wrong hands. They will only end up in museums and private collections, which you’d expect of valuable historical relics.
4 thoughts on “Sad Story Tells Need for Veterans Firearms Act”
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It might be overly optimistic, but I wonder what our chances of getting something like this through after the elections might be… We’ve been doing well so far considering.
I also wonder if this could be used to effectively kill 922(o). Perhaps not so much as flat out repealing, but by modifying the language to allow the “transfer to or by, or possession by, a federally licensed collector.” And set out guidelines for such, similar to a C&R FFL. (That suggestion makes me cringe… I would love to see it just go away.)
Regardless, it makes me sick to hear about pieces of history being destroyed or locked away in some police armory like that. Even more so that the anti’s irrational and misplaced fears got us to this point in the first place.
My understanding is that the VHFA has some good support, but it’s by no means an open and shut case.
…it would also protect inheritors from becoming accidental felons.
It’s machineguns. The odds of that bill even getting a committee hearing are vanishingly small – anything having to do with full auto, other than more restrictions, is political poison for almost every member of congress. Oh, it’s for the veterans, you say. Tough titties vets, can’t have more machineguns on the streets you know. For the children!
This sort of bill falls into the same sanity void as another amnesty. Sure, it’s a really good idea, and sure, you can even get people at ATF to agree with that, but political reality means it’ll never happen in my lifetime. It would take a lot of education and probably a generation or two to get the public around to a point where it could happen.