Copied the paragraph below from Machine Gun Price Guide
The National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) established a $200 tax on the transfer of Machine Guns, sawed-off shotguns, short barreled rifles and innocuous silencers. These things are now referred to as NFA items. This amounted to at least a 100% tax on NFA items and, more importantly, it established the first control over Machine Guns and their transfer by the Federal Government. Over 30 years later, the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA68) restricted the importation of surplus military weapons into the US. Ironically, gun manufacturers lobbied hard for GCA68 because they concluded that cheap military surplus was killing the market for their products. Little did they anticipate the full draconian measure of GCA68, but it effectively stopped all military surplus, including US models, from being (re)imported into the US. Obviously that included Machine Guns and all manner of automatic weapons. Machine Guns imported into the US after 1968 could only be owned by a Special Occupation Taxpayer (SOT) that we know as a Machine Gun Dealer and these Machine Guns became known as pre-86 or pre-May dealer samples for reasons that will soon be apparent. It took almost 20 years to correct many of the injustices of GCA68 through legislation known as The Firearms Owner’s Protection Act of 1986 (FOPA). But FOPA and its infamous late-night Hughes Amendment made all Machine Guns unlawful to be owned by individuals except those that were registered in the ATF’s National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR) before May 19, 1986. Those Machine Guns registered after that date are known as post-86 dealer samples and can also only be owned by a SOT but only for law enforcement or military demonstrations.
Thanks for all the info. Where around the Indy area do you find these guns? Either I'm just blind and they're right in front of me, or I'm not going to the right dealer.
I am a very small dealer that deals primarily in NFA weapons. I am also just south of you. Email or PM me with what you had in mind.