The Department of Justice has allowed the deadline to appeal a landmark federal court ruling against the National Firearms Act to pass, effectively ending nearly a century of federal registration requirements for firearm silencers, short-barreled rifles, and short-barreled shotguns.
The decision marks a dramatic shift in federal gun policy and a significant victory for Second Amendment advocates. The DOJ’s window to appeal last week’s ruling in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF expired at midnight. The case, heard in the Northern District of Texas, argued that Congress exceeded its constitutional power by applying portions of the NFA to untaxed firearms.
“The challenged NFA provisions are unconstitutional,” Judge James Wesley Hendrix wrote in his ruling. “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”.
The Constitutional Argument
Congress originally relied on its taxing authority to pass the National Firearms Act in 1934, establishing a $200 fee to transfer or make certain firearms and requiring their registration. However, last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act eliminated the tax for short-barreled shotguns, short-barreled rifles, and silencers.
Judge Hendrix, a Trump appointee, ruled that this has “constitutional consequences”. “Because today’s NFA does not generate any revenue from untaxed firearms, its regulatory provisions cannot be upheld under the taxing power,” he wrote in his 66-page opinion. “No longer can the challenged NFA provisions be justified — as they have been for nearly 90 years — under Congress’s taxing power”.
Without a live tax to enforce, the regulatory scaffolding built around it has nothing left to stand on. The government cannot retroactively justify a statute under a power Congress never invoked, like the Commerce Clause, just because the power Congress did invoke stopped working.
The Reaction
Gun rights groups celebrated the ruling as a historic victory. “This is a massive win and an important step forward in our strategic plan to end the NFA,” Firearms Policy Coalition President Brandon Combs said in a statement.
Nearly 50 Republican lawmakers, led by Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) and Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), signed a letter urging Attorney General Todd Blanche and the DOJ to let the ruling stand. “When the DOJ defends unconstitutional gun regulations, then the ATF becomes weaponized against law-abiding Americans, and the government betrays its founding purpose,” the letter stated.
Gun control advocates reacted with alarm. “At midnight, uniquely lethal weapons and devices — including silencers, short-barreled rifles, and shotguns — were deregulated for the first time in nearly a century,” Brady President Kris Brown said. “The Department of Justice had the opportunity to act to protect our safety, but it failed to do so”.
What Changes
The ruling means that individuals can now purchase firearm suppressors, short-barreled rifles, and short-barreled shotguns without federal registration. While background checks will still be required under federal law, the registration process — which included notifying local law enforcement — is no longer enforceable.
The ruling applies on a national scale, but it is not yet adopted unilaterally at the state level. The letter from lawmakers calls on the DOJ to apply the ruling nationwide to avoid a “split enforcement regime”.
The Bottom Line
The DOJ allowed its deadline to appeal a federal court ruling against the National Firearms Act to pass, effectively ending federal registration requirements for silencers, short-barreled rifles, and shotguns. The ruling stems from Congress’s elimination of the NFA tax in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Gun rights groups are celebrating the decision as a major victory, while gun control advocates are condemning the DOJ’s failure to appeal.
