Senate Parliamentarian Nixes Repeal of NFA Taxes and Registration in Budget Bill

It was great while it lasted.

The idea of short-barreled rifles and shotguns, as well as suppressors being lawful for sale at your local gun store, was something I was severely looking forward to.

Gun Owners of America helped craft both measures so they could pass the so-called Byrd Rule. After all, the NFA is a tax. They’ve said it was a tax for decades, which is why defenders claimed it didn’t violate the Second Amendment. Both measures were created to address it as such.

And yet, now, it looks like our hopes and dreams are dead. Maybe.

First, let’s get into what happened. From The Reload:

The Senate’s top rulemaker has determined the effort to delist silencers, short-barrel rifles and shotguns, and other guns from the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934 doesn’t fit within budget reconciliation rules.

Just after midnight on Friday, Senate Budget Committee ranking member Senator Jeff Merkley (D.) announced the NFA provision did not comply with the Byrd Rule. He said it was part of another five provisions of the Republican budget bill the parliamentarian ruled are beyond the scope of what’s allowed in the reconciliation process. That means the provision would need 60 votes to pass.

“We have been successful in removing parts of this bill that hurt families and workers, but the process is not over, and Democrats are continuing to make the case against every provision in this Big, Beautiful Betrayal of a bill that violates Senate rules,” Merkley wrote in a press release.

The decision means the Senate’s version of the NFA proposal is likely dead. It’s a setback for gun-rights activists who’d taken a risk by pressuring Republicans to push for full delisting after the House Ways and Means Committee initially proposed just eliminating the $200 tax on the devices. However, Republicans could rerun the proposal through the Parliamentarian process in its original form, as they’ve successfully done with several other provisions that she initially stripped out.

That’s something gun-rights activists have planned as a fallback if full delisting, which would not just eliminate the tax but also the registration requirements on the devices, was tossed out under the Byrd Rule. Senator Merkley said he also expects Republicans to rewrite and rerun several parts of the budget bill that have been removed.

It seems some staffers are blaming gun rights groups for overpromising and arguing that now, Republican lawmakers will be taking the heat for not delivering something that could never be delivered.

Frankly, I think those staffers need to stuff it. 

I’m sorry, but that’s just how I see it, and I’m not backing down on that one, either.

Now, it’s possible that things will pan out with what The Reload’s Stephen Gutowski terms as the fallback. It’s also possible that Vice President JD Vance overrides the parliamentarian, who actually doesn’t have any real authority per the Constitution, as I understand it. However, the latter isn’t likely, in my opinion, not because Vance would be unwilling necessarily, but because that’s kind of a nuclear option that once uncorked, will start being abused by future administrations, including very gun-hostile ones.

Let’s just say that right now, I’m less than thrilled with things. I’d love to see a pivot and us get the wins we’ve been hoping for, but I can’t be optimistic.

Instead, let me just say that we need to remember this in the midterms. Every anti-gunner in the Senate up for re-election needs to be removed so that this is a non-issue going forward. We need to hit the House with the same approach. Then we can let this go through directly, with a supermajority in both chambers, and make things happen for gun rights like they’ve never happened before.

I’m sick of playing defense. It’s time to be offensive.