Vol. 42, No. 10
2A for Today | Historic Court Ruling Strikes NFA Restrictions
For nearly a century, the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) has stood between law-abiding Americans and the right to keep and bear arms. In order to purchase suppressors and short-barreled firearms, Americans have been forced to comply with federal registration, application, fingerprinting, and photograph regulations, as well as a $200 tax-stamp requirement. These unconstitutional restrictions suffered a historic setback in August because of a lawsuit brought by Gun Owners of America (GOA), Gun Owners Foundation, Silencer Shop, a coalition of manufacturers and individuals, and 15 states.
On August 5, 2026, Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a permanent injunction in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF, barring the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) from enforcing the challenged requirements against the plaintiffs, their members, and the customers of commercial plaintiffs. The Department of Justice did not attempt to stay the ruling within the seven-day window provided by the judge, allowing the injunction to take effect on August 13.
This ruling is based upon changes enacted by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, which eliminated the $200 NFA tax on suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and “any other weapons.” Judge Hendrix rejected the government’s attempt to salvage the NFA scheme under the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, and determined that when Congress removed the tax originally used to justify the NFA, the remaining registration and regulatory requirements became unenforceable. Hendrix wrote, “The challenged NFA provisions are unconstitutional. Congress’s choice to eliminate the transfer and making taxes matters, and the defendants cannot save the NFA’s regulatory scheme by referring to a power that Congress never invoked. Efforts to render the NFA constitutional must come from Congress, not this Court.”
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