Vernon/IN - nice toy!
Ever wondered where, why and how the $200 transfer tax came to be? It stems from the 1934 Gun Control Act and was also applied to silencers that cost $2 in any hardware store. A Thompson could be had from the Sears catalog for $125. A worker on the Ford assembly line at the time didn't make $200 a month.
Congress realized that because of the 2nd Amendment, it couldn't ban guns, so made the decision to make it cost prohibitive and a crime to own one without paying the tax; allegedly a revenue-raising measure.
The tax was also applied to short barrelled shotguns and rifles commonly carried by ranchers and farmers. Who was going to pay a $200 tax for a gun worth less than $10 or a war souvenir machine gun? Instantly, millions of Americans were turned into 'paper criminals'. It was intended to apply to handguns as well, but the outcry from women who wanted access to small pistols for personal protection quashed that.
Lest anyone think this is this stuff of conspiracy theorists and the tin foil hat brigade, Canada instigated handgun registration in 1934. Why did it work here? We don't have anything like your 2nd Amendment and our population at the time was less than 15 million. We still live with it.
Also, we are currently banned from owning handguns with barrels 4" or less in length, unless you are "grandfathered", and .25s and .32s are prohibited unless similarly "grandfathered". I own guns a younger Canadian cannot own and while my wife can inherit them, she cannot acquire any others.This is merely delayed confiscation.
EVERY one of our 'gun control' initiatives can be traced directly to either the 1934 NFA and the 1968 GCA. Our anti-gun law makers have been in lock-step with yours from the get-go. We're just a few steps further ahead with 'Big Brother's' agenda.
Since the 1980s, Canadian gun owners have had to be licenced. In 1996 we had mandatory registration of long guns.
This requirement has recently been rescinded by the government, but not yet ratified by the Senate. It matters not, as we still cannot own property without the permission of the government, guns included. It has taken us a while to wake up, but the sleeping giant has awakened and politicians are feeling the heat.
I strongly urge all of you to find and read "Unintended Consequences" by John Ross. Copies on the net go for $200 up (the cost of one tax stamp!) but it's available as a pdf. Published in 1996, it had four printings, but is hard to find. The copy I got from the library is one of TWO in the entire province!
When John Ross tried to bring 200 copies of it into Canada on a book tour, he was stopped at the border by YOUR people, not ours. Think the book has something to say that they don't want you to know?
Ever wonder where, why and how the BATF became the all-intrusive, all-powerful bureaucracy it is today? This book will tell you that, and more.
"Magnificent! Will terrify and appall jackbooted stormtroopers everywhere, and even more so the whimpering media geeks who squat to lick those boots." Colorado Springs 'Gazette-Telegraph
"This is the most disturbing book I have ever read. That said, it ranks only below Holy Scripture as required reading. The most frightening book ever written about a federal bureaucracy spun totally out of control." Editor 'Fighting Firearms'
"Describes the scenario I've been worrying about for ten years. That damn Ross has written my book!" Col. James Jeffries III, federal prosecutor that forced Spiro Agnew to resign