The Independence Day signing by President Donald Trump of his “big, beautiful bill” could clear the way for the most sweeping change ever in America’s gun laws.
Several of the nation’s most prominent Second Amendment advocacy groups said one tweak made to the 91-year-old National Firearms Act opened the door to its unraveling, and with it, ending federally required gun registration.
According to those groups, the new law’s elimination of a $200 tax on sound suppressors and short-barreled guns ended the government’s right to require the registration of those items and the onerous application process to get them.
“This was a big opening for us,” Doug Hamlin, CEO of the National Rifle Association, said in an interview.
If gun groups get their way, buying a suppressor or short-barreled firearm will be as easy as getting any weapon: pick it out, pass the FBI background check, and pay the gun store clerk.
Gone will be the multiple-page sales application to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, complete with fingerprints, the registration of the item for federal files, and the monthslong wait for approval even before the FBI background check takes place and the sale is finalized.
But first, the NFA has to be challenged in court, and that process has just begun. This month, the NRA, the American Suppressor Association, the Second Amendment Foundation, the Firearms Policy Coalition, and Prime Protection STL Tactical Boutique joined two NRA members in a lawsuit challenging the act.
In a 31-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, the groups argued that without the taxing provision removed by Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the ATF loses its ability to control sales of suppressors and short-barreled rifles.
Instead, the rules should fall back on the Second Amendment, which appears to allow restrictions on dangerous and unusual weapons. Suppressors and short-barreled rifles, such as the AR-style firearms used by hunters and plinkers, are very popular and safe.
“There’s really no historical tradition that supports the registration of suppressors and short-barreled rifles and short-barreled shotguns,” said Hamlin.
The NFA was a product of government efforts to shut down crime gangs terrorizing some big cities. Today, short-barreled rifles and suppressors are used in very few criminal shootings.
“1934 was a long time ago, and you don’t have Al Capone and the rest running around. And so I think it’s time that we get this done,” said Hamlin.
He cautioned, however, that it could take three to five years to push the lawsuit through the courts and likely to the U.S. Supreme Court. “We’re in it for the long term to get it done,” he told Washington Secrets.
SEE THE LATEST POLITICAL NEWS AND BUZZ FROM WASHINGTON SECRETS
Hamlin said the St. Louis court was chosen for the lawsuit because it has been “open-minded” to the Second Amendment. He also said that the groups moved forward because Trump and his administration have also been supportive.
“There’s just been a sea change … as it relates to the Second Amendment. We’ve got the most pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment, pro-NRA president in history,” Hamlin said of Trump, a regular at NRA conventions.