A judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled Wednesday that the National Firearms Act registration requirements for short-barreled rifles and suppressors are unconstitutional in the case Jensen v. ATF.
Background
The National Firearms Act, enacted in 1934, required individuals purchasing specific classes of firearms—including silencers and short-barreled rifles—to pay a $200 tax and register the items with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The law’s framework rested on congressional authority to levy taxes.
Congress recently eliminated the $200 tax on those specific firearms through the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill, though the mandate to register them with the ATF remained in place.
Legal Challenge
The legal challenge was supported by the Second Amendment Foundation, alongside co-plaintiffs including the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, FPC Action Foundation, Texas Rifle Association, Hot Shots Custom, and three individual plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs argued that without an underlying tax, the federal government lacks the constitutional authority to maintain the registration scheme.
“The basis for each lawsuit challenging the NFA registration scheme is the same – without the tax, the remaining requirements for the affected arms under the NFA have no constitutional basis,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “And today the first court to rule on the issue has agreed with us. We’re eager to continue this fight and leave major portions of the NFA in the dustbin of history. A big win is a great way to kick things off.”
The ruling in Jensen v. ATF is the first decision rendered among three related lawsuits challenging the post-tax registration requirements. The Second Amendment Foundation is a named plaintiff in Brown v. ATF and is supporting another pending case, Roberts v. ATF.
“The removal of the $200 tax in the One Big Beautiful Bill offers the best opportunity to remove the NFA registration requirements that we’ve had in almost a century,” said Alan M. Gottlieb, SAF founder and Executive Vice President. “We are thrilled the court ruled in our favor and look forward to other jurisdictions following suit in our remaining NFA cases. This ruling will set a precedent we can now argue in courts across the country to allow Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights without fear of being placed on some government registry.”
Original reporting: Tampa Free Press — read the source article.
