Silencer Shop Foundation, et al. v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

Dallas, Texas, civil litigation lawyers represented the Plaintiff's seeking to invalidate the permitting process for short-barreled rifes and shotguns, as well as suppressors.

Reported by Kent Morlan

The National Firearms Act of 1934 instituted a tax-and-registration requirement for rifles and shotguns with short barrels, as well as for suppressors, which are devices fitted onto the barrel of a gun to muffle gunshots. The law, written as the country reeled from Prohibition-era organized crime and an attempted assassination of President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, was aimed at restricting weapons that were deemed to be suited for violent crime.

"Article I of the Constitution gives Congress certain enumerated powers. Among
those powers is the authority to “lay and collect Taxes.” U.S. Const. art. I, § 8. cl. 1. In
1934, Congress invoked its taxing power to enact the National Firearms Act—a scheme to constrict the market for certain classes of firearms. As passed, the NFA required individuals to pay a tax before transferring or making a covered firearm. And it included burdensome regulatory provisions to aid the collection and enforcement of those taxes. At that time, the NFA possessed the key feature of any tax: It produced some revenue for the government.

But that is no longer true. In 2025, Congress eliminated the NFA’s transfer and
making taxes for four categories of firearms: short-barreled shotguns, short-barreled rifles, silencers, and a final, defined group of miscellaneous firearms. Because today’s NFA does not generate any revenue from untaxed firearms, its regulatory provisions cannot be upheld under the taxing power. And there is no sign in the NFA’s text, structure, or statutory history that Congress invoked any other power in crafting the NFA provisions at issue."

Permanent injunction issued subject to reversal on appeal.