United States v. Thompson/center Arms Company (504 U.S. 505)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 8, 1992 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 504 U.S. 505 · 112 S. Ct. 2102
- Decided
- June 8, 1992
- Term
- October Term 1991
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Souter
- Issue area
- Federal Taxation
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Souter announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion, in which The Chief Justice and Justice O’Connor join. Section 5821 of the National Firearms Act (NFA or Act), see 26 U. S. C. § 5849, levies a tax of $200 per unit upon anyone “making” a “firearm” as that term is defined in the Act. Neither pistols nor rifles with barrels 16 inches long or longer are firearms within the NFA definition, but rifles with barrels less than 16 inches long, known as short-barreled rifles, are. § 5846(a)(3). This case presents the question whether a gun manufacturer “makes” a short-barreled rifle when it packages as a unit a pistol together with a kit containing a shoulder stock and a 21-inch barrel, permitting the pistol’s conversion into an unregulated long-barreled rifle, or, if the pistol’s barrel is left on the gun, a short-barreled rifle that is regulated. We hold that the statutory language may not be construed to require payment of the tax under these facts. I The word “firearm” is used as a term of art in the NFA. It means, among other things, “a rifle having a barrel or barrels of less than 16 inches in length . . . .” § 5845(a)(3). “The term ‘rifle’ means a weapon designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder and designed or redesigned and made or remade to use the energy of the explosive in a fixed cartridge to fire only a…
Excerpt of a 26,236-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.