The $200 Federal Tax Stamp

[308]

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...

 

[wired]

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...

Hes largely referring to the Miller case which was the biggest possible setup in US firearms history.

 

[308]

Hes largely referring to the Miller case which was the biggest possible setup in US firearms history.

Yes, that is correct

 

[Lazyfaire]

I bet you can too

Not a challenge to it but don't really see much need to do it

 

[wired]

Not a challenge to it but don't really see much need to do it

You run out of stamps sometimes

 

[Knebel]

So what is generally better? Individual or Trust? If one wants to SBR or Suppressor?

 

[jbett98]

Depends if you want to be able to share the NFA item with friends and family.

 

[gmerkt]

FDR needed to move the U.S. off the gold standard and onto the Silver Standard

That circulating money in 1933 based on gold was "converted" to a fiat (paper) standard, not silver. There was circulating silver coin and silver certificate notes of smaller denominations after 1933 but they were a lesser amount of circulating money. After the Federal Reserve was established in 1913, over time much of the circulating currency was in federal reserve notes. Which were and are not backed by gold. Up until 1933, there were US Treasury Gold Certificates in circulation along with federal reserve notes.

As I understand it, the underlying reason FDR took the country off the gold standard was to lift the restriction that bound the Federal Reserve to creating their reserve notes to only 40% of the gold reserve amount. Which allowed for a greater amount of new currency creation.

Stated reason for calling in the gold. There is an axiom in basic economics, it goes something like, "Bad money drives out good money." Meaning in this case, the the perceived value of bad money goes down, people hoard the good money and take it out of circulation. That's what started to happen early in the Depression. People with gold started hoarding it during a time of economic contraction when the circulation of more money, not less, was needed. And there was some truth in this as a justification for calling in the gold.

Right after the US called in the gold, they changed the official exchange rate from about $20 an oz. to $35 an oz. Which inflated the US Dollar but caused the country to reap a profit on dollar denominated international trade exchanges. Remember, this was a time when the US was a gross exporter to the world. However, over time after that, US Dollars got spent around the world and repatriation of them became a problem so in 1971 President Nixon ended redemption of them in US gold. From that time forward, the US money system has been entirely fiat (paper).

That relatively minor amount of US Treasury obligated money in silver coin and notes was wound down starting in 1964 and by 1968, silver certificate paper currency could no longer be redeemed. If you had a substantial amount of money in silver certificates, you would get silver bullion. If you had not that much, the Treasury would give you your silver in granules.

If you want to read some more interested history of US currency, go back to the US Civil War era.

Down through time, it's a rare thing for governments anywhere to operate within their means. Down-right expropriation of needed monies from the citizenry never goes over well. That's why governments have to resort to shifty, shysty, tricky methods. And it's going on with the US Dollar right now every day. At present, the slow, relatively painless method is in play. Debt has been so widely embraced that now nobody thinks anything of the government amassing huge, unrepayable amounts of it.

 

[gmerkt]

By the way about those firearm tax stamps. The used stamp itself is valuable to collectors. I think I've seen them on ebay for about $30.

 

[wired]

By the way about those firearm tax stamps. The used stamp itself is valuable to collectors. I think I've seen them on ebay for about $30.

Ive sold them for $50 . Ive seen some machine gun form 4's go for $200.