There was a time when you didn’t need to have a federal gun license to buy firearms. It’s true, there was in fact a time when you didn’t need a federal gun license to purchase any type of firearms. Up until 1934, almost anyone in the United States was allowed to purchase any type of firearm, including machine guns, short barrel rifles (SBR), short barreled shotguns (SBS), noise suppressors, and destructive devices (DD). And then right around the time that Prohibition ended, the national firearms act was enacted. What this did was to collect a mandatory excise tax on the transfer of all title to weapons. It also required that these same weapons be registered.



The fact that this all occurred around the time of Prohibition indicates that these laws were enacted in order to combat organized crime. After all Prohibition didn’t actually stop the flow of alcohol, it just put the legitimate, legal alcohol distributors out of business and transferred the business to organized crime.



The National Firearms Act requires that any transfer of firearms across state lines gets reported to the Department of Justice. Not only do you have to report the transportation of weapons, you’re charged a transfer tax to do so. Some may argue, and rightfully so, that like a lot of laws that are designed to regulate, this one falls short of it’s original goal of hampering organized crime, and adds undue restrictions, costs, and difficulties to lawful American citizens.



Fast-forward to the gun control act of 1968. This new omnibus act attempts to regulate firearms owners and any interstate commerce involving firearms. It does this by restricting the transfer of firearms to licensed manufacturer’s dealers and importers. Up until 1968, there was no federal gun license required per se. But this changed with the introduction of the federal firearms license or FFL in the Gun Control Act of 1968. Now there is a clear and defined set of rules and requirements that must be followed in order for a law abiding citizen to do deal in firearms or to purchase certain firearms that have been included on a list of weapons categorized by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives.

Tags: BATFE, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives, dd, dealer, destructive devices, federal firearms license, ffl, gun control act of 1968, importer, machine guns, national firearms act, NFA, sbr, sbs, short barrel rifles, short barrel shotguns

There a lot of reasons people may choose to get their Federal Firearms Licenses. If you’ve been curious and are interested in obtaining your license, you’ll need to do your homework first. Perhaps you’re a collector that wants to be able to purchase firearms directly. Or maybe you want to become a firearms dealer. In either case, your first step will be to obtain a Federal Firearms License.



Since there are several types of licenses available, you’ll need to decide beforehand what you’re most interested in. The reason for this is that the gun-control act mandated the licensing requirements of individuals or any company that is involved with selling firearms.

There are nine different types of federal firearms licenses available that range from a type I dealer or gunsmith, to a type XI importer of title I firearms, ammunition, and destructive devices.



Add to that three special occupational tax classes that deal with importing, manufacturing, and the selling of NFA (National Firearms Act) firearms, and you can see that it gets very complex very quickly.



So what’s the first step in obtaining your Federal Firearms License? The answer is to do your own due diligence. Knowing what type of firearms license you want is one of the largest stumbling blocks that most people face when attempting to get their license. If you’re just a collector, you’ll be best suited with a C and R license (curios and relics). Whereas if you’re intentions are to become a dealer, then you’ll need to determine what type of dealer and what type of firearms that you are interested in selling.



If your intention is to become a manufacturer, importer, exporter of firearms, NFA destructive devices, or ammunition, then the choice of type of license or tax class gets even more confusing and will require more information. You shouldn’t get overwhelmed by the choices, but you should be prepared to put in some time researching and learning the various laws to determine the license type that’s right for you.

Tags: collector, destructive devices, exporter, federal firearms license, firearms, gunsmith, importer, license, manufacturer, type I, type XI