The epidemic in America
Once again, with the latest mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder, our country is deeply divided over the issue of gun control.
An understandable hue and cry has arisen that something must be done to stop the killing, but I believe there will be no more consensus this time than there has been in the past. It’s all just become a dull noise in the background that nobody seems to care about except the friends and families of the victims.
Interestingly enough, recent history has shown us that each time this happens, a raft of new State guns laws are passed, but in a bizarre twist, these new laws almost always make buying and/or carrying firearms easier; not more difficult. Is this ironic, tragic or insane?
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For those who do not know, NFA FIREARMS is the term applied to firearms such as machine guns, silencers, short barreled rifles and sawed-off shotguns, etc. Most people are unaware that such firearms are legal to own in the United States. The requirements are much more stringent than purchasing a “regular” firearm, but by and large, any person who has a clean criminal record may own one. These special firearms are called Class III or NFA firearms, and they are legal to own in some 37 states. For the sake of this discussion, I will refer to these as “NFA” and all others as “regular” firearms.
In 1934, the National Firearms Act was passed, regulating these special types of firearms. Prior to that time, anyone could simply walk into a gun store and buy a machine gun.
Since the passage of the NFA, 87 years ago, acquiring an NFA firearm requires going through a very intense process that can take nearly a year. The buyer needs to supply fingerprint cards, passport photos, fill out a detailed form, pay a $200 license fee to the ATF and then wait months while a thorough FBI background check is conducted.
For years I have heard the story that there has never been a crime committed with a legal NFA firearm. I wanted to find out if this was factual or just one more urban myth. I discovered that there might actually have been as many as 4 cases of homicide committed with NFA firearms.
Two of the four perpetrators were police and one was a U.S. Navy sailor using issued, departmental firearms. The fourth was a Doctor who murdered his wife, but I can find no confirmation that the machine pistol he used was actually registered. The bottom line is that shootings with private, legally registered NFA firearms are virtually nil.
Think about this for a moment. In the last 87 years in the United States there has been only one single alleged murder committed with a legal, privately-owned NFA firearm, and this one incident has never been confirmed.
As of 2020, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) shows 6,634,064 NFA firearms registered in the U.S. (See chart below) It is estimated that there are about 400,000,000 privately-owned regular firearms in the U.S., or roughly 60 times the number of NFA firearms.
How is it that there were over 19,000 people killed in 2020 with regular firearms, but only one unconfirmed death with an NFA firearm in the last 87 years? Moreover, no NFA firearm of any kind, legal or illegal, has EVER been used in a mass shooting.
If the rate of killings were the same for regular guns as NFA firearms, then it would mean that approximately 60 people in total might have been killed by regular firearms since 1934, but the records show that some 19,000 were killed just last year alone. The difference is staggering and inexplicable.
What would make the more lethal NFA firearms so much less likely to be used to kill? Or more importantly, why are regular firearms so often used to kill?
Could it be that the combination of a $200 license, stringent vetting by the FBI, and the one year wait makes the difference?
Is it possible there’s a lesson here?
