The National Firearms Act was sold to the American people not as gun control, but a tax. The idea was to tax the devices so they were less affordable, but that was because Congress had taxation authority under the Constitution, not the authority to infringe on the right to keep and bear arms.
So, they got sneaky.
Now, though, the tax on suppressors and short-barreled long guns is gone. However, while the registration effort was reportedly just a way to make sure people who had these devices paid the tax, the registration for these items remains despite the tax ending.
Yeah, that’s a problem, and the law is being challenged on multiple fronts.
The Second Amendment Foundation announced on Thursday, via a press release, that they’ve filed a response brief in their second NFA challenge.
The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and its partners have filed a response brief in the second of the organization’s two lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the National Firearms Act (NFA) registration scheme.
Filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, the brief voices the organization’s opposition to the Government’s motion for summary judgment in Brown v. ATF.
Until President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the NFA established a $200 tax and registration regime on certain classes of firearms including silencers, short-barreled firearms and “any other weapons” (AOWs), drawing from Congressional authority to levy taxes. SAF and its partners filed lawsuits challenging the remaining registration requirements because without the tax, Congress’ reliance on their taxing authority is no longer justifiable.
“The passage of the Big Beautiful Bill kicked the already questionable constitutional authority for the NFA right out from under the ATF,” said SAF Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack. “With its actual purported authority now eliminated, the government has resorted to borrowing taxation authority from elsewhere in the statute, or entirely different constitutional authority rarely asserted to justify the NFA. Today’s brief explains exactly why neither tactic is persuasive.”
SAF is joined in Brown v. ATF by the American Suppressor Association, National Rifle Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, Prime Protection STL Tactical Boutique and two private citizens.
“For the second time this week SAF and its partners have filed opposition briefs in response to the government’s insistence on defending the NFA,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “We’re better situated now than we have been in almost 90 years to relegate significant chunks of the unconstitutional NFA to the dustbin of history. Today’s brief is a major step toward that goal.”
It’s pretty simple. If the tax is gone, so should the registration requirement.
Hell, it’s against federal law to have a gun registration at the federal level anyway, so it would seem to me, depending on the specific wording of that ban, that this is arguably illegal now.
When it was a registration of taxes being paid, it wasn’t about the weapons themselves. Now, though, it is, and I don’t see how that’s legal.
Still, I’m not a lawyer, and since the actual attorneys aren’t taking this approach, I’m going to assume I’m just flat-out wrong on this one.
Regardless, the rationale for the registration is now gone, so it should be tossed out with the tax stamps themselves. At that point, you should be able to walk into your local gun store and walk out with an integrally suppressed short-barreled firearm with nothing more than a NICS check, which is still more than we should have to go through, but it’s at least tolerable.
The idea of asking Uncle Sam for permission before putting hearing protection on your home defense firearm is beyond stupid.
Unfortunately, that’s been the norm for 90 years, and unless we win in the courts, it’ll be the norm for decades to come.
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