Suppressor Delisting in Big, Beautiful Budget Bill

A lot of what I do here at Bearing Arms is write about things that annoy me. Every gun control bill that flows down the pipe annoys me to no end. Even the victories, such as they are, aren’t that great in my mind, at least in most cases. I mean, I was thrilled when Georgia passed constitutional carry, but it only had a secondary impact on me, personally.

Today, though, I get to take a step toward actual celebration, because the biggest Second Amendment legislative victory in my lifetime is one step closer to happening.

That’s right, boys and girls, suppressor delisting is back in the budget that was approved by the House on a 215-214 vote earlier today.

🚨BREAKING🚨

The manager’s amendment to the One Big Beautiful Bill includes the Hearing Protection Act—fully removing suppressors from the National Firearms Act of 1934.

As a backup under the Byrd Rule, the transfer & making tax is also reduced from $200 to $0. pic.twitter.com/yVQAqjpvyA

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) May 22, 2025

Oh yeah, baby.

It’s not perfect, mind you. We’re not getting everything we wanted. The SHORT Act isn’t included.

🚨UPDATE🚨

The manager’s amendment to the One Big Beautiful Bill DOES NOT include the SHORT Act. Short-barreled firearms remain unconstitutionally taxed & registered under the NFA.

If the bill passes the House, it can still be amended in the Senate. Gun owners, DO NOT GIVE UP! https://t.co/Br4p71CL4n

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) May 22, 2025

That’s less than ideal. I really want a short-barreled, suppressed rifle for home defense, and I want it without having to go through the NFA rigamarole.

But I urge people to remember one very important thing here. We didn’t lose our rights overnight. It took time for that to happen, which means we’re not getting them back overnight, either. Ideally, I’d like to see the NFA repealed outright, but that’s a fight we’re unlikely to win. Too many people have created NFA boogiemen in their minds, and they’re just not interested in anything else.

This is also not a done deal. There’s still a fight to be had.

Of course, the current fight to get this far gave us this hilarious post on X that I can’t stop laughing about.

Congrats to all the gun control groups who suddenly decided to argue that removing the tax but keeping registration would gut the NFA! Your elected officials listened, and have decided to remove the registration requirement that you now think is useless https://t.co/skNIEYGIVQ

— Rob Romano (@2Aupdates) May 22, 2025

I mean, they kind of did make that argument, so now they can’t try to claim its worse without looking even more ridiculous than normal.

Meanwhile, what are we hearing from the anti-gun side? If you want to protect your hearing, buy earplugs.

Democrats continue to speak out against deregulating silencers. @RepThompson says that if you really care about your hearing not being damaged, just buy earplugs. pic.twitter.com/kcqDry6Ybh

— National Association for Gun Rights (@NatlGunRights) May 21, 2025

Which is, of course, why suppressors are being broadly issued to our troops with the rollout of the XM7 and why the ATF just bought a bunch of suppressors for the “health and safety” of its agents. You know, we could have bought them all earplugs for less money, yet it was decided that suppressors made more sense.

Funny, that.

The good news is that this is in the budget, but it’s imperative that you contact your senators and tell them to support the Hearing Protection Act’s inclusion in this bill. Pester them. Call, email, and do all of the things you can to get this through. The Senate will be a bigger fight, I suspect.

While you’re at it, though, maybe mention that you’d like to see the SHORT Act included as well, then we can tell them to leave both measures alone in reconciliation.

That’ll be massive.

If not, though, we’re still making major headway.