Republican Bill Seeks to Repeal 90-Year-Old Federal Gun Tax

The Depression-era tax was meant to discourage Americans from buying certain weapons.

A visitor pulls the slide of a pistol with a suppressor at a gun display at a National Rifle Association outdoor sports trade show in Harrisburg, Pa., on Feb. 10, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP via Getty Images

Some Republican members of Congress have launched a legislative effort to repeal a federal tax on certain firearms that has been in place for almost a century.

The tax was first imposed in 1934 as the central piece of the National Firearms Act (NFA), an attempt by Congress to limit the availability of machine guns, short-barreled shotguns, short-barreled rifles, silencers and suppressors, and other weapons and accessories that were widely used within criminal organizations during Prohibition.