Attorneys general from almost one-third of the country have signed on to a federal lawsuit characterizing the National Firearms Act as unconstitutional. 

The amended complaint filed on Aug. 8 in the case of Silencer Shop Foundation et al v. ATF now has 15 states on board. 

Led by Texas and South Carolina, AGs from Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming have joined Gun Owners of America, the Gun Owners Foundation, Palmetto State Armory, the Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition, Silencer Shop, and B&T USA in taking the federal government to the woodshed over elements of the NFA. 

The scheme, passed in 1934, put up to a $200 tax on the manufacture and transfer of certain types of firearms. The Supreme Court in 1937 upheld the tax as constitutional under Congress’s taxing authority.

The thing is, with the tax being zeroed out on suppressors and short-barreled firearms under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the plaintiffs argue that the registration requirements and restrictions in the NFA, without Congress’s taxing authority, are now unconstitutional.

"The NFA’s authors left no doubt that the NFA was an exercise of the taxing power, and the Supreme Court upheld it on that basis," says the filing in a federal court in the Northern District of Texas. "But the NFA no longer imposes any tax on the vast majority of firearms it purports to regulate. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Congress enacted and the President signed on July 4, 2025, zeroes the making and transfer tax on nearly all NFA-regulated firearms. That means the constitutional foundation on which the NFA rested has dissolved.

"With respect to the untaxed firearms, the Act is now unconstitutional," reads the complaint. 

The plaintiffs seek an order declaring that the NFA is unconstitutional concerning the untaxed firearms – everything except machine guns and destructive devices – and enjoining enforcement of the unconstitutional provisions.  

A similar case, Brown v. ATF, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri on Aug. 1, and counts the American Suppressor Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, National Rifle Association, and Second Amendment Foundation as plaintiffs. The gun rights organizations are joined by a St. Louis gun shop and two individuals.

Banner image: Assorted suppressors in a 5.11 Range Ready Trainer Bag headed to the range. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)