House Budget Proposal Would Scrap Tax on Suppressors

The House Ways and Means Committee has officially released its text of the proposed reconciliation budget bill, and while most of the attention to date has been focused on budget cuts to programs like Medicaid, the proposal also contains a measure that would slash a government-imposed tax that’s been in place for almost 100 years. 

The National Rifle Association alerted its members on Monday to a provision in the megabill that it says “would reduce the National Firearms Act (NFA) tax imposed on suppressors from $200 to $0. However, this legislation would continue to subject suppressors to the other unconstitutional provisions of the NFA.”

“The NRA fully supports removal of suppressors from the NFA and will work to achieve that goal as the Reconciliation Process continues,” said John Commerford, Executive Director of NRA-ILA.

This Reconciliation Bill only requires a simple majority vote in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. There may be time to include language in the Reconciliation Bill which would not only remove the tax, but would remove suppressors from the United States tax code and NFA completely.

The Reconciliation process will go very quickly, and your member of Congress needs to hear from you! In order to improve this legislation and have suppressors completely removed from the NFA, please call your U.S. Representative today and ask them to include Section 2 of the Hearing Protection Act in the Reconciliation Bill!

Zeroing out the NFA tax on suppressors would be a big step, but as the NRA notes, that only addresses one of the concerns that Second Amendment advocates have. Yes, the tax is an onerous burden on gun owners, but the registration required by the NFA is equally problematic. 

It’s unclear why the Ways and Means Committee decided to repeal the NFA tax on suppressors while continuing their status as restricted items instead of just removing suppressors from under the NFA’s umbrella, but if this was an attempt to find some sort of middle ground as a compromise I don’t think it’s going to satisfy either the 2A community or gun control activists.  Groups like Brady and Giffords are going to sound the alarm about Republicans making it easier to get a silencer (as well as engaging in fearmongering about suppressors themselves), while organizations like the NRA and GOA are already pushing to bring suppressor reform to its logical conclusion by getting rid of both of the problems created by placing suppressors under the NFA. 

As Commerford says, the reconciliation process is expected to move at a quick pace, with markups for various sections of the megabill taking place today. Ways and Means is supposed to begin its markup around 2:30 this afternoon, and the suppressor language isn’t going to be the only provision up for discussion. 

At least one blue-state Republican is threatening to torpedo the GOP’s tax package over Chair Jason Smith’s proposal to triple the cap on the state and local tax deduction to $30,000 and limit it to people who make $400,000 or less.

“The bill is dead effectively on the floor,” Rep. Nick LaLota, one of a quartet of so-called SALT Republicans advocating for a higher cap, told POLITICO Monday night. Smith “insulted us with fake numbers” and “demonstrated bad faith in presenting a bill that … doesn’t even come close to earning our vote,” said LaLota, who is not on Ways and Means, but whose support will be necessary when the bill comes to the House floor.

We know there are going to be some tweaks to the Ways and Means proposal before members vote to send it to the floor. Now we need to make sure that the concerns of gun owners are addressed during the mark up process. 

Making suppressors easier to acquire is the right thing to do constitutionally, as well as from a pragmatic standpoint. Quieting the sound of a firearm will save shooters from hearing loss, but it will also reduce complaints about noise from NIMBYs who want to shut down recreational shooting on private property. If gun owners want to see full suppressor reform included in the reconciliation bill, they’re going to have to start making some noise today. The Ways and Means proposal would certainly be an improvement over the status quo, but if House Republicans are willing to scrap the taxes on suppressors they should go ahead and remove them from the NFA itself.