A group of gun rights organizations and private citizens just tossed a legal grenade into the federal court system, arguing that the government no longer has the power to track silencers and short-barreled firearms.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, claims that because the government stopped collecting taxes on these items, it legally lost the right to require owners to register them.
The legal battle stems from last year’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” which wiped out the transfer taxes for noise suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and items classified as “any other weapons.”
While the tax disappeared, the requirement to register these items with the government stayed on the books. The plaintiffs argue that without the tax, the registration rules have no leg to stand on.
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Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO) leads the charge alongside the Buckeye Firearms Association, the American Suppressor Association Foundation, Meridian Ordnance, and two individuals, T.J. Roberts and Zachary Cockrell. They are taking on heavy hitters in the federal government, naming the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and its Acting Director Daniel P. Driscoll, as well as the Department of Justice and Attorney Pamela J. Bondi, as defendants.
The core of the argument is that the National Firearms Act (NFA) was originally built as a tax law. “When registration was required on suppressors and firearms,” JPFO stated, “it was justified only because of the $200 tax provision in the National Firearms Act. Now that the taxes have been eliminated, there really cannot be any further registration requirement.”
The legal team from the Washington, D.C. firm Cooper & Kirk argues that the federal government is overstepping its constitutional authority.
Their filing states: “While the NFA’s regulations may have been permissible in support of the statute’s taxes on making and transferring firearms, that justification no longer remains for items whose making and transfer are no longer taxed. To the extent that the NFA imposes requirements on making, transferring, receiving, possessing, or otherwise using untaxed firearms, it cannot be justified as an exercise of any other Article I power. Accordingly, the NFA is unconstitutional as to the untaxed firearms.”
If the court agrees, it could effectively end the decades-old practice of the ATF keeping a database of these specific types of weapons and accessories. For now, the case remains in the Covington Division, waiting for a response from the Department of Justice.
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