Fifteen Republican attorneys general have joined a Gun Owners of America lawsuit regarding the National Firearms Act’s registration rules, arguing that the registry has burdened lawful owners and businesses.
The coalition has filed an amended complaint to expand the challenge regarding concerns of government overreach and privacy. They asserted that such registration requirements impose undue restrictions on gun owners.
National Rifle Association plaintiffs wrote:
Because suppressors and short-barreled rifles are neither dangerous nor unusual, and there is no historical tradition of requiring the registration of protected arms, the NFA’s registration scheme … is unconstitutional.
National Rifle Association Chief Executive Officer Doug Hamlin said:
[This] was a big opening for us.
Further:
[M]ultiple-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.
Plaintiffs said:
Congress reduced certain National Firearms Act taxes to $0 and argued the Supreme Court upheld the law only as a tax in Sonzinsky v. United States.
They claimed noncompliance still carries prison terms and fines.
Say what?
Plaintiffs said:
[T]he rules fail the standards established in District of Columbia v. Heller and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
They argued:
[I]tems such as suppressors and short-barreled rifles are widely owned and lawfully used.
Gun Owners of America Director of Federal Affairs Aidan Johnston said:
Well, in our case, for gun owners, right now, the tax is $0 but if you don’t pay it, if you don’t comply with the National Firearms Act, then Congress has specified in 1934 that you should go to jail for 10 years, and you should pay a $250,000 fine per violation.
Nuts!
Johnston added:
So the tax is zero, and the whole National Firearms Act is based on being a tax and a registration of the tax paid, and yet there is a heck of a large punishment for gun owners who violate that law.
Opponents have maintained that Congress may rely on taxing or other Article I powers, arguing that registration requirements support public safety.
If the challengers succeed,
suppressors and short-barreled firearms
could be exempted from federal registration requirements.
With no fee, now there’s no tax, and that means we have an opening, and so we have sued along with Gun Owners of America to try to get that taken out so there’s no longer regulation registration for those different weapons, and we’re going to win that.
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Author: Nathanael Greene
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