On October 18th, the Firearms Research Center, in conjunction with the Wyoming Law Review, hosted a symposium on the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934. The one-day event featured panels that examined many aspects of this major federal law.
The NFA was enacted in 1934 and was the first major federal restriction on certain types of firearms and accoutrements. The law required registration of machine guns, silencers (suppressors), and short-barreled rifles and shotguns. It also imposed a $200 tax stamp.
Many of these sessions were recorded. In this forum, I will discuss interesting aspects of each over the next few weeks. Several of these sessions are available for CLE credit.
The History of Machine Guns
David Kopel
Senior Fellow, University of Wyoming Firearms Research Center
Adjunct Scholar, Cato Institute
30 Minutes of CLE
The first video in the National Firearms Act Series provides an overview on the history and evolution of machine guns. In this lecture, Kopel covers the earliest firearms classified as machine guns up through the invention of the selective fire rifle, which becomes the military’s M16 rifle. Kopel begins by discussing early rapid-firing guns that are not automatic (continuous fire with each trigger pull) yet have similar rates of fire, which he designates as “manual machine guns,” such as the Gatling Gun. He continues with the invention of automatic technology decades later and how that has evolved since.
Kopel’s presentation is valuable because it provides a straightforward examination of the history of the machine gun, rather than editorializing them in the context of the greater political debate. He also makes an interesting classification of certain rapid firing guns as manual machine guns. Typically, the historical and legal fields define a machine gun as a gun capable of automatic fire, which makes the term manual machine gun a bit of an oxymoron. Check out the video to hear his argument for its inclusion in the long historical lineage of rapidly repeating firearms.