Attorneys General From 15 States Sue to Abolish National Firearms Act

The plaintiffs claim that the 91-year-old statute is actually an illegal gun registry. Gun control groups warn against abolishing the law.

Firearms on display at the Gun Owners Advocacy and Leadership Summit in Knoxville, Tenn., on Aug. 9, 2025. Michael Clements/The Epoch Times

Fifteen states have joined a federal lawsuit calling for the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934 to be abolished as an unconstitutional gun registry.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made the announcement at the Gun Owners of America Gun Owners Advocacy and Leadership Summit in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Aug. 9.

The plaintiffs want the NFA declared an unconstitutional gun registry after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4, reduced the tax on certain items from $200 to zero dollars.

The bill essentially removes the excise tax on silencers and short-barreled rifles and shotguns. However, the items must still be registered under the NFA. According to the plaintiffs, this effectively neutralizes NFA’s taxing authority, making it an illegal firearms registry.

Machine guns and destructive devices are still subject to the $200 tax under the NFA.

Paxton predicted that the NFA would be struck down.

“Guess what,“ Paxton told the gathering in Knoxville. ”With no fee, now there’s no tax, and that means we have an opening.”

Paxton said he and the attorneys general of Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming signed on to a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a statement on his website: “I’ve always fought to protect our Second Amendment rights and have repeatedly stood up against government overreach. This case is about both.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton attends the executive order signing ceremony to reduce the size and scope of the Education Department, in the East Room of the White House on March 20, 2025. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Gun control groups did not respond to a request for comment on the NFA.

According to Moms Demand Action, the NFA has kept people safe for more than 90 years because it limits weapons that have been determined to be especially dangerous.

“The NFA has regulated silencers, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and other weapons for nearly 100 years for good reason—they put first responders and entire communities at greater risk,” Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action, said in a statement on her group’s website.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1937 that the NFA is a legal exercise of Congress’s taxing authority. As such, the government may gather information on the owners of certain firearms and their accessories as part of the tax system.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act did not eliminate the tax, so gun control proponents in Congress are hoping to raise the tax.

Senate Amendment 2973, introduced by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), would raise the tax to $4,709. This is the value of the 1934 $200 tax in today’s dollars. The measure would also impose a $55 tax on actions currently exempt under the code.

“If we want to save lives in this country, we have to find a way, come hell or high water, to stop mass legalization of silencers in this country,” Murphy stated in a video posted on X.

The other plaintiffs include Gun Owners of America, the Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition, the Gun Owners Foundation, Palmetto State Armory, SilencerCo Weapons Research, and Texas resident Brady Wetz.

Defendants are the Department of Justice and Attorney General Pamela Bondi, as well as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and its acting director, Daniel Driscoll.