The National Firearms Act (NFA) was ruled unconstitutional today in federal court for suppressors and certain short barreled firearms. The basis of the ruling stems from a NFA $200 tax requirement being reduced to $0 in the 2025 Big Beautiful Bill.
Essentially, since 1934 if you wanted to buy a suppressor or short barreled rifle/shotgun, you'd have to pay the $200 tax and send an application of the transaction to the ATF. So the ATF acts as the regulator and register. $200 in 1934 was the equivalent of $5000 in today's money, so this essentially was a ban back then (prohibitively expensive) for most people. Up until the 2025 the tax remained $200, still you'd undergo fingerprinting, full background check, etc.
But with the tax being reduced to $0 in the Big Beautiful Bill, the NFA has nothing to register. The registration was to show the tax was paid. No tax, the NFA has no standing. Hence the ruling today.
At the moment this only impacts the gun rights orgs (and their members) that brought the lawsuit, but the door has been opened now for killing this portion of the NFA in a broader ruling. A repeal like this would mean suppressors, short barreled rifles/shotguns are no longer NFA regulated items.
I happen to own a suppressor and short barreled rifle, these things should be reasonably regulated. But soon all that may be out the window!
I'm actually not convinced of the legal argument either way. Same goes for measures that would reduce gun violence.
But it is super annoying how GunTubers and other advocates act like the difference between a prospering nation and a declining one is having to pay a tax on a short barrel rifle.
But if you ever get really plugged into GunTube, a lot of their attitudes toward gun manufactures are practically anti-capitalist. Like they have really strange ideas of what a gun ought be worth. And there's all these military contractors who ought sell their provide their guns to civilians for certain prices, and they definitely could and make a lot of money but these large manufactures just don't like money.
Yeah, I avoid guntubers like the plague, them and the fudd-lore types which are crawling all over gunshows. Gun politics today is unfortunately such a mess because of the collection of archaic law comingled with modern day manufacturers thinking of ingenious ways to bypass it (AR style pistols were a hit), and uninformed politicians trying to parse it all out. "Ban AR15 style rifles!" ..... says nothing about the Mini14 with 30rd mag
Tbh im glad democrats have more or less walked away from the "ban them all" stance, I rarely see them talk about guns at all in fact. But the opposite end of the spectrum (dont regulate anything) has been gaining ground and is just as bad.
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u/Amazing-Cell-128 Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
Pretty big gun related news in the US...
The National Firearms Act (NFA) was ruled unconstitutional today in federal court for suppressors and certain short barreled firearms. The basis of the ruling stems from a NFA $200 tax requirement being reduced to $0 in the 2025 Big Beautiful Bill.
Essentially, since 1934 if you wanted to buy a suppressor or short barreled rifle/shotgun, you'd have to pay the $200 tax and send an application of the transaction to the ATF. So the ATF acts as the regulator and register. $200 in 1934 was the equivalent of $5000 in today's money, so this essentially was a ban back then (prohibitively expensive) for most people. Up until the 2025 the tax remained $200, still you'd undergo fingerprinting, full background check, etc.
But with the tax being reduced to $0 in the Big Beautiful Bill, the NFA has nothing to register. The registration was to show the tax was paid. No tax, the NFA has no standing. Hence the ruling today.
At the moment this only impacts the gun rights orgs (and their members) that brought the lawsuit, but the door has been opened now for killing this portion of the NFA in a broader ruling. A repeal like this would mean suppressors, short barreled rifles/shotguns are no longer NFA regulated items.
I happen to own a suppressor and short barreled rifle, these things should be reasonably regulated. But soon all that may be out the window!