The new Freedom from Taxes Act would drop the National Firearms Act taxes on machine guns and destructive devices, as well as the SOT tax paid by license dealers.
The measure, proposed by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), is a simple two-page bill that follows in the wake of language in last year's H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill package, that zeroed out the long-standing taxes on making and transferring suppressors and short-barreled firearms.
Bobert contends there is no reason the taxes endure now that some of the most popular items regulated under the NFA are no longer taxed.
"Taxing our constitutional rights is unacceptable and unconstitutional,” said Boebert. "The government should not be imposing penalties on law-abiding citizens exercising their Second Amendment rights."
According to the most recent statistics by federal regulators, the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, 8,655,743 devices and firearms of all types were "on the books" as of May 2024. Of that figure, 3,536,623 were suppressors, while another 1,123,615 were short-barreled firearms and Any Other Weapon (AOWs), which are now tax-free.
That just leaves as taxable items the 782,958 machine guns and 3,212,547 destructive devices, the latter a catch-all for individual rounds of incendiary ammunition with more than a quarter ounce of explosive, firearms chambered larger than .60 caliber, and items such as live grenades.
Besides the tax on items, Boebert's proposal aims to end the Special Occupational Tax paid by licensed dealers and makers of NFA devices entirely, reducing the annual burden from $1,000 to $0 for importers and manufacturers and from $500 to $0 for dealers. The ATF listed 15,022 SOTs nationwide as of May 2024, almost one out of eight FFLs.
In 2023, no less than 3,533,533 NFA forms were processed of all types, generating $96 million for the U.S. Treasury. Compare that to 2013, when just $18 million was raised on NFA taxes.
The bill has the support of pro-Second Amendment groups.
"The $200 NFA tax was never about public safety—it was designed to price ordinary Americans out of exercising their constitutional rights. That ends now," said Senior Vice President for Gun Owners of America, Erich Pratt. "Congress recently eliminated the NFA tax on short-barreled firearms. Now it’s time to eliminate the rest of the NFA taxes once and for all. If Congress truly believes the Second Amendment means what it says, there is no excuse not to cosponsor this bill and send it to President Trump’s desk."
Importantly, should the tax be removed, it is being argued in court in no less than three cases that the NFA itself should be scrapped as unconstitutional since it is, at its core, a taxation scheme.
Of note, those figures have skyrocketed on non-taxed NFA items since the H.R. 1 rollback, with over 6 million suppressors alone in circulation as of April 2026.
Banner image: Rental machine guns on the range at Battlefield Vegas, which we visited in 2025 and had a blast. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
