Gun Rights Groups File Supplemental Brief in NFA Challenge

Originally, the One Big, Beautiful Bill was going to completely deregulate suppressors and short-barreled long guns. That freaked too many people out for no reason, so they just removed the NFA tax. That wasn’t ideal, but it was still a big step forward, and since the entire reason for the registry itself was to make sure people who had these things paid the taxes, it was time for the attorneys to fire up the old printers.

Now, the Department of Justice, which works for the same president who at least seemed to be down with full regulation, is defending the registration of these firearms.

As the battle continues, a press release from the Second Amendment Foundation tells us that they and their partners have taken the next step in killing the registry for these devices.

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and its partners have filed a supplemental reply brief in Brown v. ATF, one of the organization’s three lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the National Firearms Act’s registration requirements for short-barreled firearms and silencers. 

Prior to President Trump signing the One Big Beautiful Bill, people wanting to purchase silencers and short-barreled rifles had to pay a $200 tax and register the firearm with the government. The One Big Beautiful Bill, however, eliminated the tax but left the registration requirement in place. SAF and its partners have now filed three separate cases challenging this remaining registration scheme. 

“This reply brief gave us the perfect opportunity to rebut the government’s arguments in support of the NFA,” said SAF Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack. “We were encouraged the court requested targeted supplemental briefing that addressed key elements of the proper Second Amendment analysis. In our principle brief we laid out in detail why the answer to every question posed supported our position. And now with this reply brief we have driven home the point and dismantled each of the government’s arguments to the contrary.”

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 nearly a century the government has used the NFA to disenfranchise law-abiding Americans and it’s high time this infringement be righted,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Citizens across the country own more than 5 million silencers and countless short-barreled rifles. Registering your guns with the same government the Second Amendment is intended to protect you from runs contrary to the fundamental principles of the right to keep and bear arms. More than 90 years of constitutional injury is enough – it’s time to strike this one down.”  

The truth of the matter is, as I’ve already noted, this was sold to the American people as a tax, not gun control. Now that we don’t have the tax, the registry is irrelevant. I get that some people seem to think that we need to keep an eye on people who have these guns, but let’s also remember that SBRs take almost nothing to make yourself. If people want them without registering them, the NFA can’t really stop them. Like it or not, the AR platform is like Mr. Potatohead for gun people, and that includes swapping out uppers with pistol uppers if we want.

The only thing keeping people compliant is the desire to follow the law. That’s it.

And the registry damn sure isn’t doing much to stop the proliferation of full-auto switches for striker-fired handguns, now is it? Those devices should be registered under the NFA, too, right? Let’s set aside the ’86 machine gun ban that makes them all unregisterable anyway for the moment and focus on how that’s not stopping anyone.

It’s also not helping anyone catch bad guys who use illegal machine guns, SBRs, or suppressors.

Weird.

So yeah, the registry is nothing more than an infringement on the liberty of law-abiding Americans with zero actual impact on criminals. As per usual.

Hopefully, the courts see this, and as Sack said above, this is a promising sign. It would be more promising if the DOJ would stop working so hard to defend this, though.

Editor’s Note: Second Amendment groups are hard at work in statehouses and courtrooms protecting and strengthening  our Second Amendment rights.

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