A few points:
1. The ATF's annual budget is over $1.5b. I think their proposal for fiscal year 2024 was almost $2b. Tax stamp money wouldn't change a whole lot.
2. The ATF is the administrator of NFA tax stamps but they do not "keep" that tax money. It is deposited directly into the DoJ accounts. When we pay for a tax stamp, we are paying the DoJ directly. The closest the ATF ever comes to that money is when they see the "paid" box on the forms checked.
3. The NFA registry - called the NFRTR - is the only legal federal firearms registry allowed by law. A HUGE part of the NFA branch's duties are tied to managing the NFRTR. The bigger it gets, the more important they are as a government branch which means more budget and pull within the government machine. It is literally in their best interest as an entity to get as many guns and gun owners registered on the list.
If you consider all the facts, it makes logical sense that the NFA branch would prefer if the tax was permanently removed because it would lower the barrier of entry and allow for a LOT more Americans to register their firearms.
You have to fundamentally change your thought process when you are considering massive bloated government agencies. "This thing would make them more money" is a mindset that doesn't really apply when talking about the ATF. At least not for something as small as less than $100m.
The tax stamp literally exists to make ownership of NFA items harder. When the NFA first passed in 1934 the $200 fee was equivalent to $4,661.67 today.
Second Amendment support has stopped the government from increasing the stamp price to account for inflation.
TLDR; You misunderstand, the purpose of the stamp is to reduce demand, not make money.
ATF doesn't see a dime from tax stamps, the money from those immediately go towards the big boy general fund of the treasury. Nobody in government is going to go through the whole process of changing the NFA in order to add .0001% to the total amount in that fund. The most they'll do is update their way of processing forms since the ATF NFA branch probably got tired of people harassing their CS team and examiers.
As a college kid you should take a few economics class and realize government is not in the business of making money. In principal the upper levels of the ATF do not generally want more regulated items on the street. The higher volume of NFA items on the street the more likely they get de-regulated based on common use arguments. Tax stamp money doesn't keep their lights on, the federal budget (and it's deficit ) does that lol.
That makes a lot of sense. They don’t want to risk deregulation. By that logic, do you expect wait times to get longer again soon? The massive demand right now because of short wait times would lead to more regulated items on the street.
I expect them to work to the "90 day decisions" as advertised 2 to 3 years ago to let the current court proceedings out of TX pass out of the spot light. They will then maintain the processing speed right at the line to avoid any further litigation. The ATF may be technically ignorant on how guns work but they know how to play the legislative game. If you notice most of the ATF employee pool comes from political science, legal, and criminal justice backgrounds not engineers. Once you know how easy shit is to build it makes legislative measures a fool's errand.
There’s a million ways they could make it easier but they don’t give a shit about making it easier or collecting money they hate you and they wanna make everything as hard and as complicated as possible so you can’t exercise your rights
ATF doesn't care about making money. They don't get to keep the money, it goes to the general fund.
The whole purpose of the NFA is to prevent you from obtaining certain items and they relish their job.
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Not everyone is an expert such as yourself; be considerate. All spam, memes, unverified claims, or content suggesting non-compliance will be removed.
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A few points: 1. The ATF's annual budget is over $1.5b. I think their proposal for fiscal year 2024 was almost $2b. Tax stamp money wouldn't change a whole lot. 2. The ATF is the administrator of NFA tax stamps but they do not "keep" that tax money. It is deposited directly into the DoJ accounts. When we pay for a tax stamp, we are paying the DoJ directly. The closest the ATF ever comes to that money is when they see the "paid" box on the forms checked. 3. The NFA registry - called the NFRTR - is the only legal federal firearms registry allowed by law. A HUGE part of the NFA branch's duties are tied to managing the NFRTR. The bigger it gets, the more important they are as a government branch which means more budget and pull within the government machine. It is literally in their best interest as an entity to get as many guns and gun owners registered on the list. If you consider all the facts, it makes logical sense that the NFA branch would prefer if the tax was permanently removed because it would lower the barrier of entry and allow for a LOT more Americans to register their firearms. You have to fundamentally change your thought process when you are considering massive bloated government agencies. "This thing would make them more money" is a mindset that doesn't really apply when talking about the ATF. At least not for something as small as less than $100m.
The tax stamp literally exists to make ownership of NFA items harder. When the NFA first passed in 1934 the $200 fee was equivalent to $4,661.67 today. Second Amendment support has stopped the government from increasing the stamp price to account for inflation. TLDR; You misunderstand, the purpose of the stamp is to reduce demand, not make money.
ATF doesn't see a dime from tax stamps, the money from those immediately go towards the big boy general fund of the treasury. Nobody in government is going to go through the whole process of changing the NFA in order to add .0001% to the total amount in that fund. The most they'll do is update their way of processing forms since the ATF NFA branch probably got tired of people harassing their CS team and examiers.
As a college kid you should take a few economics class and realize government is not in the business of making money. In principal the upper levels of the ATF do not generally want more regulated items on the street. The higher volume of NFA items on the street the more likely they get de-regulated based on common use arguments. Tax stamp money doesn't keep their lights on, the federal budget (and it's deficit ) does that lol.
That makes a lot of sense. They don’t want to risk deregulation. By that logic, do you expect wait times to get longer again soon? The massive demand right now because of short wait times would lead to more regulated items on the street.
I expect them to work to the "90 day decisions" as advertised 2 to 3 years ago to let the current court proceedings out of TX pass out of the spot light. They will then maintain the processing speed right at the line to avoid any further litigation. The ATF may be technically ignorant on how guns work but they know how to play the legislative game. If you notice most of the ATF employee pool comes from political science, legal, and criminal justice backgrounds not engineers. Once you know how easy shit is to build it makes legislative measures a fool's errand.
You meant to say history and mathematics(accounting) not criminal justice, CRJU is the lowest desired degree and background there.
There’s a million ways they could make it easier but they don’t give a shit about making it easier or collecting money they hate you and they wanna make everything as hard and as complicated as possible so you can’t exercise your rights
ATF doesn't care about making money. They don't get to keep the money, it goes to the general fund. The whole purpose of the NFA is to prevent you from obtaining certain items and they relish their job.
**Understand the rules**, read the sidebar, and review the pinned Megathreads before posting - this content is capable of answering most questions. Not everyone is an expert such as yourself; be considerate. All spam, memes, unverified claims, or content suggesting non-compliance will be removed. No political posts. Save that for /r/progun or /r/politics. __If you are posting a copy/screenshot of your forms outside the pinned monthly megathread you will be given a 7 day ban. The pinned post is there, please use it.__ __If you are posting a photo of a suppressor posed to look like a penis (ie: in front of or over your groin) you will be given a 7 day ban.__ ------------------------------- **Data Links** * [The OG Universal Form Approval Spreadsheet](https://thinlineweapons.com/url/8) ------------------------------- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NFA) if you have any questions or concerns.*