Lots of people are being affected by the partial government shutdown. I am being affected as well, and in a way that I think is particularly unreasonable.
The National Firearms Act (NFA) imposes a statutory excise tax on the manufacture and transfer of certain firearms and mandates the registration of those firearms. The items covered by the Act include Short-Barreled Rifles (SBRs), Short-Barreled Shotguns (SBSs), silencers, and machine guns. The tax for most items is $200, and is paid when the application for manufacture/transfer is submitted. There is then a lengthy wait (currently around 8 months) before the application is reviewed due to the large backlog of applications.
The NFA Branch of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacoo, Firearms, and Explosives is responsible for processing applications for manufacture/transfer of items regulated by the NFA. This branch has been shut down, and is not processing any applications. I currently have an application to manufacture a Short-Barreled Rifle pending (tax paid, application not yet approved).
What makes this especially unreasonable is the fact that each of the applications is paid for with a $200 tax, and yet the NFA Branch has been shut down due to the examiners being furloughed. Why is the $200 tax paid by each applicant not being used to pay the examiners? Based on the Paperwork Reduction Act notice on the Application to Make and Register a Firearm (Form 1), the "estimated average burden" for the application is 4 hours. So, unless the examiners are being paid more than $50/hour, there should be more than enough money available to pay the examiners from the tax paid by the applicants.
I strongly object to the NFA Branch being shut down, and would like to see it started back up immediately.
Thank you,
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