By Dave Workman
The Second Amendment Foundation’s director of Legal Operations has revealed the legal strategy his organization plans to use in an effort to gut the National Firearms Act (NFA), adopted more than 90 years ago as a taxing mechanism to discourage ownership of several firearms and suppressors (silencers).
According to a mass email message sent Friday by SAF Legal Operations Director Bill Sack, the strategy is simple. The organization will be filing “multiple lawsuits in different courts.” The aim is to “surround the NFA from every angle.”
Since passage by Congress of the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” which removed the $200 excise tax on certain products defined as “firearms” or “any other weapons” under the NFA, including suppressors. Last week, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms—SAF’s sister organization—filed a lawsuit in Texas challenging sections of the NFA. The lawsuit is supported by SAF.
Joining CCRKBA are the FPC Action Foundation, Texas State Rifle Association, Hot Shots Custom, and three private citizens, all Texas residents. They are represented by attorneys R. Brent Cooper at Cooper & Scully in Dallas, Texas, and David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson and Nicholas A. Varone at Cooper & Kirk in Washington, D.C.
CCRKBA, PARTNERS FILE FEDERAL CHALLENGE TO NFA
According to Sack’s email blast, “Even with the tax burden reduced to $0 for short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and suppressors, the NFA still requires the submission of your fingerprints, and still requires you put your name on the government’s list of firearm owners. That is unacceptable, pure and simple.”
Here’s the strategy, as Sack explained line-by-line:
- More judges, more perspectives – We increase our odds of finding constitutionally honest judges who understand Bruen and Heller.
- Circuit splits force Supreme Court review – If different circuits rule differently, SCOTUS is more likely to step in. We’re creating the conditions for a landmark victory.
- The government can’t defend the indefensible everywhere – Every new case spreads ATF resources thinner and exposes how weak their legal position really is.
- Momentum compounds – Each favorable ruling sets precedent and influences other courts and puts more pressure on the government.
“The Supreme Court has already given us the Second Amendment roadmap,” Sack explained. “Firearms ‘in common use’ for lawful purposes cannot be banned. There are over 4 million suppressors and hundreds of thousands of short-barreled rifles legally owned in America. These are common arms used for hearing protection, home defense, and hunting – not ‘dangerous and unusual weapons.’”
Sack suggests sending SAF a $200 donation—the amount one would have to pay the government for the registration fee, to help fight the legal battle. The difference is that a contribution to SAF is tax deductible. The $200 excise tax fee is not deductible.
“Think the ATF would give you a $200 tax write-off,” Sack asks readers. “Think again.”
The NFA, adopted in 1934, has been a pet peeve of gun rights organizations for decades. Now, says Sack, there is a genuine opportunity “to destroy the entire NFA framework as it pertains to short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and suppressors.”
“This is the fight of our generation,” says Sack. “For 91 years, gun owners have been forced to beg permission from the federal government, submit fingerprints like criminals, and allow the ATF to maintain a registry of their constitutionally protected property. Now – finally – we have the opportunity to end it.”
