The ATF got a bit of a body blow recently when a court ruled that the continuation of the rule requiring suppressors and short-barreled long guns to be registered was unconstitutional. After all, if the registration was to make sure people paid the NFA tax and there’s no longer a tax, then there’s no reason to register the guns.
But, frankly, the Department of Justice is expected to continue the defense of the registration for some inane reason.
A group of Republican lawmakers has another idea. They know that the ruling itself is limited in who is impacted, but there’s a mechanism where the DOJ can opt to apply it to everyone.
We must ensure NFA registration for suppressors, SBRs, SBSs, and AOWs is gone for good.
That’s why I led a Republican coalition of lawmakers in urging the DOJ to NOT appeal last week’s victorious ruling, apply it nationwide, and make it permanent via rulemaking. pic.twitter.com/lZtGjnSdwk
— Rep. Andrew Clyde (@Rep_Clyde) August 11, 2026
The DOJ was given a 7-day window in which to appeal the decision, and the letter from Clyde and 46 other GOP Senators and House members urges the department not to do so.
The letter says:
The court’s opinion tracks precisely the position this Congress articulated when we passed Section 70436 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The court correctly recognized that the NFA’s registration, application, and reporting requirements for short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, silencers, and AOWs have rested only on the taxing power, and that a tax set to zero can no longer support the regulatory machinery built to collect it.
Instead of appealing, the signatories of the letter urge the DOJ to use rulemaking to adopt the various aspects of the ruling nationwide so the benefits it secured are not only applicable to customers of Silencer Shop, members of certain gun rights groups, etc.
The letter says:
The DOJ should apply the court’s constitutional holding as its nationwide operating position. The court held that the challenged NFA provisions — governing registration, application, and transfer of untaxed firearms — are unconstitutional because they no longer rest on any valid exercise of an enumerated power. That holding does not turn on any fact particular to the named plaintiffs; it applies with equal force to every person subject to these same regulations. Therefore, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) should be directed to apply this ruling as its governing position to all transfers and makings involving untaxed firearms, regardless of whether the applicant is a party to this litigation, again effective immediately.
Cam will have Rep. Andrew Clyde on Cam and Co. later today, where this will undoubtedly be a topic of conversation.
Ultimately, the call is for the ATF to use the same rulemaking power it used to ban so-called ghost gun kits and bump stocks to, instead, adopt the Jensen ruling as a nationwide ruling. It’s certainly a plan, but I do have concerns.
See, if it’s simply a rule as it applies to most of us, then we’ve got a problem when the next anti-gun administration comes into power. We all know it will happen sooner or later, and while there is a lot we can do to mitigate that threat, a simple rule at the ATF can be changed in the blink of an eye. Remember how bump stocks were completely legal based on the ATF’s own rulings, then Las Vegas happened and the rule changed. Suddenly, bump stocks were machine guns, and we weren’t allowed to have them, damn what the Second Amendment says.
I worry that if we adopt this approach, someone will try to change the rules again.
I may be worrying about almost nothing. It might already be addressed in some manner, and I’m just missing it. I’d love to be able to go to the local gun store and browse, only to decide to get a suppressor and not have to deal with any NFA paperwork. It’s why nothing I said should be taken as opposing the proposal, because I’m not. This is just a concern and nothing else.
And hell, when I started this gig, I never thought we’d be where we are right now, so I’ll definitely take what I can get.
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