The National Firearms Act in Court
BY Herschel Smith
1 month, 2 weeks ago
As you probably know, our friend Stephen Stamboulieh on behalf of the GOA, along with a number of others, have challenged the NFA in court based on the lack of fee associated with suppressors and SBRs. Of note, the real failure here was by John Cornyn and John Thune for allowing the senate parliamentarian to dictate the terms of legislation (partly because Cornyn is a gun controller, as is Thune).
Here is Stephen’s brief. Here is the DOJ response.
Twice the DOJ argues that the NFA is in place primarily to regulate “weapons of war.” To which we may respond, “But the second amendment is in place specifically to protect weapons of war, and it came first.”
As always, Mark Smith is rather Pollyanna about the whole thing and believes that the DOJ is arguing for the NFA because they want this to go to the SCOTUS at which point they will argue with the plaintiffs that the NFA is now unconstitutional as it pertains to suppressors and SBRs because of the change in the tax code.
I think Mark is dead wrong about this, but you should make up your own mind about his claims.
On December 1, 2025 at 10:55 am, george1 said:
During the fight over the Big Beautiful Bill, Trump could have picked up the phone and told Thune and Cornyn to get their heads out of their backsides regarding SBRs and suppressors. He chose not to. So that tells me that the odds are not good for getting rid of the NFA.
However, a lot has changed in a few months and Trump’s base has fractured. He may think he needs a win to try to get his base shored up. We shall see.
On December 1, 2025 at 8:49 pm, Dan said:
Expecting a court/judge to actually serve justice or protect Rights they don’t like is a fools errand. It’s NEVER going to happen. The system is irredeemably broken.
On December 1, 2025 at 8:53 pm, Heywood said:
I agree that Mark may be over his ski’s a tad on this one. There aren’t a lot of 4D Chess players in the DOJ that I have seen.
On December 8, 2025 at 3:24 pm, Latigo Morgan said:
Pam Bondi has been consistently anti-2A. Don’t expect that leopard to change her spots anytime soon.