Second Amendment advocacy groups are working overtime to secure major victories included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act by House and Senate Republicans and push back against uninformed Democratic attacks aimed at those wins.
Led by Gun Owners of America and others such as the National Rifle Association, the Firearms Policy Coalition, and key House and Senate gun rights advocates, a major campaign is on to limit the scope of the Al Capone era National Firearms Act.
Changes put into the House version of the bill and added to in the Senate bill would end taxing and registration on suppressors and short-barreled rifles, such as the popular AR-style pistol, and the campaign is working to make sure that those provisions are accurately written into the final agreement.
Even with the changes, those items will still require an FBI background check to purchase.
“The current language in President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill dictates that SBRs, SBSs, AOWs, and suppressors would go through the same background check that federal law requires for FFL sales, minus any erroneous National Firearms Act taxes and accompanying registration requirements. Most importantly, NFA taxes and registration no longer apply on these items,” said Erich Pratt, senior vice president of Gun Owners of America, the lobbying group that practically parked in the Senate to win support for the changes.
Thanks to GOA & our allies in the Senate, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” now includes removing the tax & registration on suppressors & short-barreled firearms.
We’ve been getting A TON of comments, so here’s a full breakdown of the top questions we’ve seen across our posts.
pic.twitter.com/roxKYeqKz9
— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) June 18, 2025
“This is a great first-step for law-abiding gun owners who have been unjustly subject to these archaic taxing and registration requirements on the constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms. This begins the process of undoing nearly a century of tyranny,” he added.
In fact, the group called the elimination of short-barreled rifles and suppressors from NFA coverage a “generational win” that was seen as a long shot just months ago.
Democrats, led by gun banners such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, are already attacking the change. Schumer recently claimed, for example, that suppressors are used only by “killers” to hide “their bad horrible deadly deeds.”
But critics of Schumer said that he obviously has never heard a suppressed gunshot, which is very loud, though not as loud as an unsuppressed shot.
To help with that effort, Crime Prevention Research Center President John R. Lott Jr. just published a study that highlighted the errors of Schumer’s arguments while noting that suppressors are commonly used by plinkers and hunters in Europe as a hearing safety device.
He looked at the sound of suppressed gun shots and said they remain loud, though not at a decibel level requiring hearing protection. “In reality, AR-15s or .45-caliber handguns with suppressors still sound as loud as jackhammers within three feet. Even a 9mm handgun is as quiet as a chainsaw at a similar close range,” he said.
And he used statistics to dismiss liberal charges that they are typically used in mass shootings.
SEE THE LATEST POLITICAL NEWS AND BUZZ FROM WASHINGTON SECRETS
“Between January 1, 1998, and December 31, 2024, only two of 104 mass public shootings involved suppressors — one in Virginia Beach (2019) and one in Milwaukee (2020). Those two cases averaged 11 casualties, while attacks without suppressors averaged 19.8,” he wrote.
Lott concluded, “One wonders whether the Democrat politicians who speak out on gun control issues have ever fired a gun or if they don’t care about the truth. Unless they are deaf, there is no way that they could have fired a gun with a suppressor and claim they are silent.”