Often seen as a panacea for the recent use of fully automatic weapons in crimes such as the Valentine's Day massacre and the Bonnie and Clyde killing spree across the country, the National Firearms Act of 1934 was America's first major national gun control law. It made something of a legal attempt to circumvent the Second Amendment by imposing a $200 “tax” on the transfer of certain firearms, including anything capable of fully automatic fire (the gun switches and fires as long as the trigger is pulled), short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and sound suppressors.
However, Congress repealed this tax in its “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Now the NFA of 1934 is a tax-free tax law, and the National Rifle Association (NRA) and three other pro-Second Amendment groups file a lawsuit demanding that the whole thing be canceled.
You should like the strategy. If you remember, back in June, when the “Big Beautiful Bill” was discussed. bargainedthere was a lot storm and stress on the existential nature of the National Firearms Act and how the Senate parliamentarian would view efforts to phase out items such as suppressors and SBRs as part of the reconciliation process. Again, reconciliation measures could bypass the Senate's 60-vote requirement and pass with a simple majority.
As many have noted, the courts and the Department of Justice have proven for decades that NFA is a tax measure. This is how its main proponent justified it on the grounds that it did not violate Americans' gun rights when the NFA was being considered back in 1934. SUMMARY Law and Hearing Protection Law in B³ it should have been easy.
However, the Senate parliamentarian saw things differently and excluded them. That's why, instead of taking suppressors, SBRs, and SBSs out of the NFA and regulating them like any other firearm you can buy today, the only step forward included in the final B³ was the repeal of the $200 tax stamp (which goes into effect January 1st).
Ah-ha! This is where there seems to be an opportunity to sue to throw all of this out.
But wait. Resetting the excise stamp is no small matter. As we and others have noted, eliminating the tax stamp undermines any remaining arguments that the NFA is a tax… because there is no tax anymore. In addition, cans and SBRs are widely used. This means they are passing Heller test. There is also no text, history or tradition regulating them, which means it does not pass through Bridge test.
In short… NFA is now very constitutionally vulnerable. Yesterday, four gun rights organizations filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of Texas, part of the gun-legal fifth district, that's exactly what's happening.
The four groups mentioned include the NRA, the American Suppression Association (ASA), the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), and the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC).
If this lawsuit were successful and the NFA were dismissed, it would be an interesting change in the American shooting sport. Yes, this would supposedly make it easier to purchase fully automatic weapons, but the 1986 law Firearm Owner Protection Actbanned the sale of new fully automatic weapons to the general public, limiting their sales to law enforcement and the military. So if you want a fully automatic weapon, you are limited to the inventory that was already built for that market before this law went into effect.
That's one reason why a nice original 1927 Thompson “Chicago Typewriter,” if you can find one for sale, will cost you as much as a good-sized house.
No, the real action here will be the likely explosion of Short Barreled Rifles (SBRs) and suppressors. Suppressors, often incorrectly called “silencers”, do not reduce the volume of a shot to the “bench” level you see in movies and television, but they do result in a significantly reduced report. In Europe these things are everywhere; In European countries it is considered bad manners to walk on the playing fields with a rifle without a silencer. As for the SBR, the ubiquitous AR-15 platform can be converted to it very quickly by swapping out the upper receiver, say swapping the 20-inch barrel for a 12-inch barrel for any expected close quarters work you might need – or, more likely, just for fun.
Read more: In a sane world, firearm suppressors would not be regulated.
OPINION: Can Donald Trump fulfill the NRA's Christmas wish list?
The entire claim seems to hinge on a tax perspective. The 1934 NFA was sold as a tax measure; the tax has disappeared. The lawsuit, filed by the NRA, ASA, SAF and FPC, states in part:
Congress passed the NFA explicitly based on its enumerated powers to “levy and collect taxes,” US CONST. art. I, § 8, paragraphs. 1, and the Supreme Court upheld the NFA provisions on this basis, holding that the NFA was “only a tax measure” and that the registration provisions were “clearly appropriate because they contributed to the generation of revenue,” see Sonzinsky v. United States, 300 US 506, 513 (1937). Indeed, the Court characterized the NFA as “an interconnected statutory system of taxation of certain classes of firearms.” Haynes v. United States, 390 US 85, 87 (1968) (emphasis added). However, this constitutional basis was recently eliminated with respect to the manufacture, transfer, and receipt of several items that are defined by the NFA as “firearms,” including silencers, short-barreled rifles, and shotguns, rendering the NFA restrictions on these items unconstitutional as applied to these weapons.
It will take some time until we get through the trial. The Northern District of Texas may seem like a decent starting point, but the case is likely to end up at the Supreme Court. And in the post-Bridge world, who knows? This could actually work and give the Second Amendment community its biggest victory since 1934.
Plus, if this works, maybe I'll finally be able to buy a brand new one Game Hunter Marble.
You can see all legal documentation Here.
Editor's note: Schumer's completion is here. Instead of putting the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the Radical Democrats forced the government to shut down health care to illegal immigrants. They own it.
Help us continue to report the truth about Schumer's closure. Use promo code POTUS47 to get 74% off your VIP membership.
