Federal regulations on firearm silencers, some guns cannot stand, judge rules

[Timber Rattler]

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/6013117-federal-judge-national-firearms-act-regulations/

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.

(snip)

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.

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