Congressional Hearings on the NFA

Putting pistols in with NFA restricted weapons makes sense in one respect:
It creates two classes of firearms.
Rifles and shotguns, primarily sporting in nature and commonly used for that purpose,
and handguns, sawed-off rifles or shotguns, machine guns, silencers, and disguised guns of the type assassins would use.
The second class of weapons are non-sporting and are designed as homicidal weapons-- for offense or defense.

 

Said the apologist for "sporting purposes" which has no basis in any interpretation of the 2nd Amendment. But we all know where that "sporting purpose" BS came from.

 

That's not why handguns were originally included in the Act. Roosevelt wanted hard core gun control like many European countries had. And handguns are the most prevalent types of firearms.

 

There's no such thing as offensive or defensive firearms. Any firearm can be used in either role.

 

I don't know. A Hi-Point is pretty offensive. I mean, have you seen one of those monstrosities?

 

I'm pretty sure 100% of firearms owners could become homicidal using an ordinary rifle or shotgun instead of a machine gun. As I mentioned above, the original point of the Act was tight gun control, not some silly arbitrary classification.

 

Touche.

 

They are big and ugly. But they work.

Nemo