Wyoming Republican U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis is backing a push to lift 90-year-old restrictions on short-barreled rifles and pistols, which a Wyoming firearms law expert called “silly.”
Lummis on Thursday jointed the co-sponsors of S. 1162 the SHORT Act, in the U.S. Senate. The bill calls an amendment of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as it relates to the 1934 National Firearms Act (NFA).
The NFA restricted civilian access to such things as fully-automatic weapons and “short-barreled” rifles and shotguns.
The NFA was implemented over worries about weapons wielded by Prohibition-era gangsters, said George Mocsary, director of the Firearms Research Center at the University of Wyoming and professor at the UW College of Law.
Even back then, restrictions on short-barreled firearms didn’t do anything to make the public safer, Mocsary told Cowboy State Daily.
“It’s silly. Just silly,” he said.
Pistol Braces Also Covered, Lummis Says
Under the NFA, a short-barreled rifle is defined as a rifle with a barrel less than 16 inches, or any firearm made from a rifle that, as modified, has an overall length less than 26 inches.
A short-barreled shotgun is defined as a shotgun with a barrel or barrels less than 18 inches, or a firearm made from a shotgun with an overall length less than 26 inches or a barrel less than 18 inches.
Lummis said the SHORT Act also pushes back against an attempt by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to ban pistol braces.
Pistol braces are devices that can be attached to pistols that allow them to be fired from the shoulder, like rifles.
“The Biden administration spent four long years undermining our Second Amendment rights and attacking law-abiding gun owners,” Lummis says in an email to Cowboy State Daily on Friday. “The SHORT Act provides a permanent solution to the unconstitutional and unworkable Pistol Brace Rule put forward by unelected ATF bureaucrats.
“I’m proud to work with my colleagues on this legislation to protect the people of Wyoming’s right to keep and bear arms.”
NFA Restrictions
Last year, Wyoming joined 24 other states in a lawsuit against the ATF’s ruling to ban pistol braces.
Pistol braces remain legal, but under the same NFA restrictions that apply to short-barreled firearms and noise-reducing firearms suppressors.
That means that civilians who wish to buy such items must first go through a vetting process that includes finger-printing, and must buy a $200 federal tax stamp for each item.
They must also go through background checks similar to those for buying a firearm from any licensed dealer.
It used to take months to go through the process. But the ATF recently streamlined it to where it might take only days, Mocsary said.
‘Disrespect For The Law’
Mocsary argued that restrictions on short-barreled firearms are unnecessary and ineffective, and that the NFA was prompted by hype over 1930s gangsters.
Short handguns and long rifles and shotguns remained less-restricted, while the “mid-length” firearms listed in the NFA were perceived as the “evil, devil firearms that the gangsters used,” he said.
That sort of inconsistent regulation causes resentment among law-abiding gun owners, Mocsary said.
“When the law is this internally inconsistent and provides such severe penalties for something that is so illogical, it breeds disrespect for the law,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
