Buying and Owning Machine Guns

Revered shooting competitor and historian Mike Venturino (1949-2024) joins Paul Vendredi to advise would-be machine-gun owners about the expenses and labyrinthine regulations associated with ownership of these guns. Here’s some of what we’ll explore:

FULL AUTO vs SEMI AUTO
These mechanisms are not the same, yet politicians continue to leverage confusion over the terms for political ends.

MACHINE GUN vs SUBMACHINE GUN vs ASSAULT RIFLE
While “machine gun” legitimately refers to all three types, it technically means a fully automatic firearm chambered in a rifle caliber, while a sub-machine gun is a fully automatic firearm chambered in a pistol caliber. An assault rifle is a fully automatic firearm chambered in a middling caliber between pistol and rifle calibers. (Sporting rifles like the AR-15, while chambered in those middling calibers, are NOT assault rifles as they are not fully automatic.)

NATIONAL FIREARMS ACTS (NFA)
This piece of legislation from 1934 continues to tangle Americans in such red tape as the Form 4, the tax stamp, and the necessity of obtaining the Chief Law Enforcement Officer’s signature on said paperwork. The term “NFA items” refers to machine guns, short-barreled rifles (SBRs), suppressors (“silencers”), and explosive devices.

1986 ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN
Thank this piece of legislation for the sky-high prices on machine guns still available to the civilian market.

FEDERAL FIREARMS LICENSE (FFL), CLASS-III
NFA items can be bought legally only from persons in possession of this license.

FORM 4 AND FORM-4 REGISTRY
The process of buying a machine gun begins with Form 4, the application for transferring NFA items. The Form-4 Registry exists to track NFA items and their owners.

FORM 5320-20
This form is required when transporting NFA items across state borders.

Join us as we break down these complex topics into easy-to-understand segments, providing you with the knowledge you need to navigate the world of machine guns and their regulations.

Mike Venturino died in 2024. This interview was recorded on 11/13/17.