I will cast my "dissenting opinion", but basically I agree that prices will increase overall, maybe not till there is another "gun collection scare". There have been periods that prices have temporarily gone down. We are in one of those periods right now. NOW is the time to buy again! The "gun market" is somewhat depressed right now, maybe because some folks are optimistic that the NFA will go away or some of the Pre-Mays are being reclassified. I have heard there are only 17,000 guns on the NFTR in this classification, and every "new' Dealer wants his share, which drives these prices up. The old standard was that a Pre May was worth 1/2 of a Transferable...look at this market now. I have seen Pre May Thompson's selling (asking price) for as much or more than a Transferable.
As with the "Hearing Protection Act", an ATF Agent told me that ATF collects around 25 plus million per year in tax on Silencers. They fund a State of the Art Range in Quantico for all Government Agencies to use. Think HPA will ever pass???
I don't think HPA will ever pass, nor will the NFA go away. Unless, some really smart lawyer can negate the Byrd Amendment that was defeated 4 times in the Tax Act of 1985, then passed on the 5th attempt...it was either 3 of 4 or 4 of 5 and I believe the latter was the case. There have been some obscure Federal Court rulings that would allow some change. My old buddy, Nick Hope of Rock Creek Gun Service, used to keep up with these, but I never took copious notes on these, so please don't "hate" on my post for this or the above.
Just some thoughts...