{"id":111514,"date":"2025-08-07T17:13:33","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T22:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=111514"},"modified":"2025-08-07T17:13:45","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T22:13:45","slug":"111514","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=111514","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawsuit: The Regulation Of Untaxed Firearms Under Federal Law Is Unconstitutional<\/a><\/p>\n

Several Second Amendment advocacy groups, including the National Rifle Association (NRA), have filed a\u00a0lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0to challenge the constitutionality of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA).<\/p>\n

President Trump\u2019s One Big, Beautiful Bill erased the NFA\u2019s $200 stamp tax on short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, any firearm classified by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) as \u201cother,\u201d and suppressors starting Jan. 1, 2026. However, \u201cthe firearms are still required to be registered and are subject to\u201d regulations designed to enforce the \u201cnow-extinct\u201d tax, the lawsuit says. This \u201cregulatory regime\u201d no longer comports with Congress\u2019 constitutional authority, plaintiffs claim. The lawsuit also argues that \u201cthe NFA\u2019s regulation of suppressors and short-barreled rifles violates the Second Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Firearms Act\u2019s registration scheme only exists to ensure that the tax on NFA firearms was paid,\u201d Adam Kraut, the Second Amendment Foundation\u2019s (SAF) executive director,\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0in a press release. \u201cWith Congress removing the tax on silencers, short-barreled firearms, and \u2018any other weapons,\u2019 the continued inclusion of these items in the NFA serves no purpose, except continuing to retain an impermissible hurdle to the exercise of one\u2019s constitutional right to keep and bear arms.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit,\u00a0Brown v. ATF,\u00a0<\/em>was filed on August 1 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. The plaintiffs are the NRA, the American Suppressor Association (ASA), SAF, the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), Prime Protection STL Tactical Boutique, and two individual members of these organizations. They are suing both the ATF and the DOJ. The lawsuit asks the court to declare NFA regulations \u201crelating to making, transferring, receiving, possessing, or otherwise using\u201d the untaxed firearms and suppressors unlawful and to block anyone from enforcing the challenged portions of the law.<\/p>\n

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According<\/a>\u00a0to the NRA, an earlier version of the Big, Beautiful Bill included language that would have removed the $200 \u201cfederal excise tax, registry, and paperwork currently imposed on suppressors,\u201d short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and \u201cany other weapons\u201d under the NFA. However, this language was\u00a0removed<\/a>\u00a0from the legislation after the Senate parliamentarian advised it violated the Byrd rule. As The Federalist\u2019s Jordan Boyd\u00a0reported<\/a>, the parliamentarian\u2019s role is \u201cpurely advisory.\u201d The Senate chair can ignore her recommendations, and \u201c60 senators \u2026 could overrule the chair if he sides with the parliamentarian.\u201d What\u2019s more, a \u201csimple majority could add the language back to the bill as an amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final version of the Big Beautiful Bill cut the tax from $200 to zero but, as the lawsuit details, still allows for \u201cburdensome\u201d registration requirements.<\/p>\n

The NFA was originally introduced, by the ATF\u2019s\u00a0admission<\/a>, with an \u201cunderlying purpose\u201d to \u201ccurtail, if not prohibit, transactions in NFA firearms.\u201d It was\u00a0signed<\/a>\u00a0into law by FDR under the age-old pretense of preventing violence. At the time, the $200 tax was closer to $5,000 in today\u2019s dollars. The law was later\u00a0revised<\/a>\u00a0because of concerns about its constitutionality, but the tax and registration requirement remained.<\/p>\n

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\u201cCongress took a major step by eliminating the NFA tax on suppressors and short-barreled firearms through the OBBB, and we\u2019re proud to work alongside other leading Second Amendment organizations to finish the job,\u201d said John Commerford, executive director of the NRA\u2019s Institute for Legislative Action.<\/p>\n

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Lawsuit: The Regulation Of Untaxed Firearms Under Federal Law Is Unconstitutional Several Second Amendment advocacy groups, including the National Rifle Association (NRA), have filed a\u00a0lawsuit\u00a0to challenge the constitutionality of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA). President Trump\u2019s One Big, Beautiful Bill erased the NFA\u2019s $200 stamp tax on short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, any firearm … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courts","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111514"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111516,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111514\/revisions\/111516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}