House Bill Seeks to Remove SBRs from National Firearms Act

Short-barrel rifles, or SBRs, are probably the most accessible NFA items out there. Yeah, you have to jump through the regulatory hoops for an NFA item in general, but once you do, you can just slap a new AR upper on your rifle or replace a pistol brace with a stock (back when that was an option) and you’re ready to roll.

But they really shouldn’t be on the NFA at all.

I get why they’re there. Short-barreled weapons like sawed-off shotguns might have been pretty common for gangsters and others to use back in the day, but the law didn’t stop people from using a hacksaw on Granpa’s old 12-gauge. Even so, they aren’t all that commonly used for violent crime these days, and I have doubts about how common they were back in the pre-NFA era.

So yeah, it’s stupid.

Now, a bill has been introduced to change that.

 Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) is reintroducing the Stop Harassing Owners of Rifles Today (SHORT) Act on Thursday to remove onerous restrictions on short-barreled rifles, shotguns, and other firearms.

The bill would amend the Internal Revenue Code if 1986 and remove these firearms from the National Firearms Act (NFA) classification. If passed, it would rescind the extra restrictions and taxes imposed on those who own these weapons.

Sen. Marshall argued that “’Shall not be infringed is crystal clear – and the Biden-era abuses of the Constitutionally protected rights of gun owners across the country need to be undone.”

The SHORT Act takes a step toward rolling back nonsensical regulations that the National Firearms Act has placed upon gun owners. I challenge my colleagues in both chambers to pass this legislation and join me in fully restoring and protecting our God-given Second Amendment rights.

Marshall and other lawmakers first introduced the measure in 2023.

Last week GOA announced we were working with Senator Marshall and Representative Clyde on the SHORT Act.👏

Today, we’re breaking down what the SHORT Act does, why we need it, and how it limits the anti-gun agenda of the Biden Administration. pic.twitter.com/3KnaupeoND

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) October 8, 2022

The SHORT Act will remove language treating certain types of shotguns as “destructive devices” while doing away with the $5 transfer tax for “any firearm classified as any other weapon.”

The bill also seeks to negate state-level prohibitions on these weapons and even includes language that would override licensing requirements, saying, “any person who acquires or possesses such rifle, shotgun, or other weapon … shall be treated as meeting any such registration or licensing requirement.”

So, yeah, kinda big.

Now, the question is whether this will go anywhere.

I’m a little more optimistic than I might have been a few days ago, thanks to the National Constitutional Carry Reciprocity Act advancing, but I do have my doubts about this making it to President Donald Trump’s desk.

It would have to go through the Senate, and as things currently stand there, I suspect this would never get a vote thanks to the filibuster. As I’ve said before, it kept a lot of bad gun laws from getting passed, but now it’s going to keep some good ones from getting passed, too.

But who knows, I may well be wrong. It’s happened before and will happen again, so why not on this?

The truth is that SBRs are demonized as somehow particularly dangerous weapons, mostly because they’re viewed as more concealable, but the fact that things like AR-pistols aren’t used in nearly as many crimes as some might like to believe kind of negates this argument, especially since the AR-style firearms are kind of like an adult Mr. Potatohead in that you can mix, match, and customize all you want, without needing a gunsmith to make many of the modifications.

If someone wants an illegal SBR, they can get one. You’re not stopping them.

But, as per usual with gun control, it does stop the law-abiding gun owner who might like a smaller, more compact and lightweight firearm for home defense purposes or just because they think it’s neat.

I’m praying this one passes. It should because there’s no reason for these guns to be NFA items, even if I thought there were validity to the NFA as a whole. I don’t, so that just gives me another reason to see these removed.