One of the most common refrains heard about the NFATCA is that it is just a collection of good old boys trying to protect the value of their collections. The truth is SO different from that. Even the barest scrutiny shows the economic fallacy of that meme. The only ones trying to protect their investment are those that are invested in the low end of the pond...

One of the most oft-repeated memes heard in casual conversation and internet discussion forums regarding National Firearms Act (NFA) topics is that the founders and leadership of the National Firearms Act Trade & Collectors Association (NFATCA) are a bunch of good old boys that are colluding to keep machine gun prices high in order to protect their investments. That certainly makes for a meaty conspiracy theory that sets tongues wagging and fists pounding. Fortunately, it's just not true. Many machine gun prices are high, but the NFATCA leadership actually supports the elimination of 922(o) (commonly referred to as the Hughes Amendment), the bit of legislation that capped the number of fully transferable machine guns at today's current total of around 180,000 weapons. So why does the good old boy meme persist?

Frankly, it persists because perpetuating this bit of hyperbole is ever so much easier to get hyped up over than actually understanding the truth. So let's take a moment and examine the actual economic impact of the restrictions in place that result from the segregation of machine guns into groups that can and cannot be owned. NFA ownership is increasing each and every day. A review of ATF's NFA Branch workload will clearly show this. With a finite supply of eligible machine guns and an increasing base of potential owners interested in acquiring them, market prices continue to escalate. This is true for pretty much all transferable machine guns. Many of us boggle at the thought of HK sears, a tiny bit of registered metal, selling for nearly $20,000 today, as opposed to the $500 or so twenty five years ago. One looks at the price of a transferable M16 and easily concludes that those folks who have these machine guns would take a huge wallop if the registry were opened up and everyone could now buy new, cheap machine guns. There is some economic truth to that. In all candor, there are a lot of common machine guns with little to no intrinsic value that absolutely would take a value hit if 922(o) suddenly vanished. But the other part of the economic truth is that there are a lot of machine guns that would easily sustain their value and even see their value continue to rise. We will look at that in a moment.

The current machine gun market is eerily similar to a precious metals commodity pit. There is never any time when all 180,000 weapons are for sale all at once. At best, there is but a tiny sliver of guns for sale and when those guns become available, potential buyers can whip up a tsunami of astonishing cash offers. Add the reach of the internet and suddenly that cozy club of knowing somebody that could get you hooked up vanishes and you wind up competing with 100's (1,000's?) of folks all after the same thing. The prices continue to escalate. Yelling, screaming, frenzied bidding. We are now at the point where nobody is surprised to see prices tags of $50,000, $100,000 or $200,000. One just shrugs at seeing MAC's pushing $5,000. Surely, the good old boys don't want to see this vanish, right?