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Federal regulations on firearm silencers, some guns cannot stand, judge rules
A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that some federal gun restrictions can no longer stand after Republicans last year zeroed out the taxes that justified their constitutionality.
Congress relied on its taxing authority to pass the 1934 National Firearms Act (NFA), which established a $200 fee to transfer or make certain firearms. But last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act eliminated the tax for short-barreled shotguns, short-barreled rifles and silencers.
U.S. District Judge Wesley Hendrix said that has “constitutional consequences.” The law’s registration and recordkeeping requirements for those guns can’t continue, he ruled.
“Because today’s NFA does not generate any revenue from untaxed firearms, its regulatory provisions cannot be upheld under the taxing power,” Hendrix wrote in his 66-page opinion.
Hendrix was appointed by President Trump and serves on the federal bench in the Northern District of Texas.
The judge delayed his order by a week so the government can first try to appeal. The case would head next to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has struck down other federal gun control measures in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent Second Amendment expansion.
If allowed to take effect, the judge’s ruling would effectively create a patchwork of enforcement. It would also prevent the government from enforcing the restrictions against the individuals, businesses and Republican-led states who are suing.
They quickly headed to court last year after congressional Republicans tucked the tax elimination into their sweeping legislative package, boosting hopes it could help topple the decades-old gun control measures.
The Trump-era Department of Justice (DOJ) has continued to defend the NFA by telling judges they should examine it under Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce.
It’s a position that puts the Trump administration at odds with pro-Second Amendment groups. The DOJ has broadly taken a more friendly approach to gun rights, including an April announcement to roll back various gun regulations, but it has continued to defend other federal restrictions in court as they’ve come under challenge.
The judge’s ruling left gun rights groups delighted.
“This is a massive win and an important step forward in our strategic plan to end the NFA. We cannot wait to fully and finally eliminate this unconstitutional scheme so people can exercise their rights when, where, and how they choose,” Firearms Policy Coalition President Brandon Combs said in a statement.
The group backed the lawsuit, which was joined by individual gun owners, commercial firearms businesses and more than a dozen Republican-led states.
“The federal government has long used its taxing power as a backdoor to impose invasive registration mandates on law-abiding citizens,” West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey (R) said in a statement.
The Hill has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
Updated at 10:18 a.m. EDT.
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