Just hope they don't index the Tax Stamp to CPI or inflation. $200 in 1934 is $4,706 today.
The last Trump administration, there was a big push for this concept inside the tax reform bill, mainly around tying AMT amounts to an index, like many other things are (standard deduction, exemptions, estate tax, etc). If it's a revenue source it's on the table during any tax reform. Those changes were generally wins for taxpayers because it resulted in automatic increases in deductions, but that doesn't mean we can't lose if the coin comes up tails next time.
I paid a lot of taxes to get my suppressors, but have zero qualms about all the money I paid for stamps going POOF if it meant we got rid of stamps. I paid to get them because that was the current law, I would like to be able to sell them easier TBH.
I agree with the high-level comments that this shouldn't be. But that's not the world we live in today, and IMO don't let perfect be the enemy of good - one possibility is make the NFA stamp be like a duck stamp - buy one for $20 at the post office anytime you want to do a transfer, and then any FFL can get a mark to apply to the form/ cancel the stamp to complete the transfer. Put the same background check stuff as the ATF 4473 on the Form 4. Doesn't require reworking the entire law at once. ATF still gets all the Form 4s so they can continue to keep us on the right watch lists (
), but lowers the cost and changes who approves. Incremental wins are wins. If you remove enough bricks from a wall, it crumbles. This is what the east end of the political spectrum has been doing for years - making enough small exceptions that eventually there's nothing left. Why not seek full repeal and incremental change parallel to each other?
RE: bump stocks and forced reset triggers. I'll admit I struggled with those, initially they seemed to fall into a grey area because they were new to the market and obviously not anticipated in the 1934 law. Being a non-reactionary nerd I dug into it. Ultimately the ATF really screwed themselves over with their initial rulings on those, then made a blatant power grab via the rulemaking process. Last I saw on the FRT ban was that Judge O'Conner right here in Fort Worth shot it down as of July this year. Great ruling with a good technical analysis of why the ATF rule made no sense. Sucks to spend time wandering the desert, but it's not the end of the world to spend some time getting a bureaucrat pimp slapped in court.
I see bump stocks as stupid and useless - but Tesla's are also stupid, and we need to ensure regulations clear a high burden as not to infringe on our God given right to do stupid things simply because we want to
. Tannerite is stupid, and I shoot it enough that I won't judge the bump stock and FRT guys. We're all in this together!