Roosevelt’s original proposal for what would become the National Firearms Act of 1934, the first federal gun control law in the US, sought to tax all firearms and establish a national registry of guns. When gun owners objected, Congress scaled down FDR’s proposal to allow only for a restrictive tax on machine guns and sawed-off shotguns, which were thought to be gangster weapons with no usefulness for self-defense.
This act taxed firearms under 18 inches in length and required registration of those same guns — a restriction later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1968 because it might require gun owners to self-incriminate if they attempted to register a weapon illegal in their home state according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The registration requirement was removed from later versions of the law.
Below: The unlawful destruction of our second amendment from FDR to Joe Biden:
