John Ross' book Unintended Consequences gives a different account of how the 1934 NFA started and he claims it hand to do with the Feds needing a way to arrest moonshiners. The claim was they could never catch them in the act, but when confronted, the shiners usually had sawed off shotguns. So the feds manipulated the court suggesting sawed off shotguns were not weapons of war and thus not to be considered as something a well regulated militia would have under normal and reasonable circumstances.
Perhaps Ross was wrong or simply embellished the account for the book...
Perhaps Ross was wrong or simply embellished the account for the book...