Why the Fight Isn’t Over: Even With the $0 NFA Tax, Congress Can Bring It Back

In the hours after President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill into law, Gun Owners of America filed the first major lawsuit challenging the National Firearms Act (NFA).

The lawsuit targets the registration and regulatory requirements for suppressors, SBRs, SBSs, and AOWs—arguing that since the tax is now $0, the law is no longer a legitimate tax measure and must fall.

This is exactly the kind of litigation many of us have been hoping for. But it’s also where a lot of confusion begins.

🔹 If the Lawsuit Wins, Is the Fight Over?

Unfortunately, no.

While a successful court challenge would end the registry and tax for these categories for now, it wouldn’t repeal the NFA itself. That means the legal framework remains in place—and the next anti-gun majority in Congress can bring it roaring back to life.

Here’s how it would work:

✅ Congress Could Reimpose the Tax

Because the NFA was originally justified as a revenue measure, nothing stops Congress from reinstating the $200 tax (or more) in a future budget bill. In fact, a new tax provision could easily be passed via budget reconciliation, requiring only a simple majority in the Senate.

✅ They Could Index It to Inflation

Democrats have repeatedly proposed indexing the NFA tax to inflation, which would raise it to well over $4,000—making lawful ownership unaffordable for ordinary Americans.

✅ They Could Expand the NFA

Just as concerning, Congress could add AR-15s, magazines, and other semi-automatic firearms to the NFA, requiring the same tax and registration process.

✅ They Could Claim “Revenue” Justification

Any of these expansions could be argued as a revenue measure—circumventing many procedural hurdles.

🔍 Why Reducing the Tax to $0 May Backfire on the NFA Defenders

One overlooked—but critical—aspect of this new lawsuit is how the $0 tax actually strengthens the argument that the NFA has always been an arbitrary regulatory scheme rather than a true tax.

Here’s why this matters:

✅ No Revenue, No Justification

The Supreme Court’s 1937 Sonzinsky v. United States decision upheld the NFA tax on the theory that Congress was simply imposing a revenue measure, and the courts shouldn’t question motives.

But by reducing the tax to zero through reconciliation—while leaving the tax on machine guns and destructive devices at $200—Congress effectively admitted the tax is not about funding government.

✅ Arbitrary Burden on Rights

When suppressors, SBRs, SBSs, and AOWs are now taxed at $0 while other NFA items are taxed at $200, the inconsistency is impossible to ignore. If the government claims these are especially dangerous weapons requiring taxation to deter ownership, why did Congress remove the tax from half the list but not the other?

This inconsistency makes the tax scheme look arbitrary and punitive, not a neutral excise tax.

✅ A New Bruen Vulnerability

Under the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision, any law burdening the exercise of the Second Amendment must be justified by historical tradition—not simply modern policy preference.

Without a revenue justification, the NFA registry is suddenly exposed as a pure regulatory burden on constitutionally protected conduct, with no clear historical analogue.

✅ Legal Leverage for Full Repeal

In effect, the removal of the tax makes the entire NFA more legally vulnerable:

“If there is no tax to collect, why does the registry exist at all?”

This is precisely the argument that may unlock court rulings to dismantle not only the tax but also the registration scheme—once and for all.

🔍 Bottom Line

If you’re wondering whether this is over, the answer is simple:

What Congress giveth, Congress can taketh away.

Without a full repeal of the NFA, gun owners will remain stuck in a perpetual cycle of fighting the same battles every time the balance of power changes in Washington.

While this lawsuit by GOA and others initially focuses on removing the registration requirement for the $0 tax items, it could open the door to demonstrating that the NFA tax has always been an arbitrary burden rather than a legitimate revenue measure.

If the courts agree, this could strike at the core justification the government has relied on for nearly 90 years—and set the stage to finally bring the whole NFA regime crashing down.

Stay tuned. This isn’t just another lawsuit. It could be the beginning of the end for the NFA.

🎯 Why This Matters

We should absolutely celebrate this win: lowering the tax to $0 and opening the door to lawsuits is a huge milestone. But stopping here is not enough. If the courts strike down the registry for lack of revenue, Congress can simply bring the tax back and rebuild the entire system.

That’s why so many in the 2A community are calling for a full repeal:

✅ To prevent any future Congress from reviving or expanding the NFA.

✅ To eliminate the risk of “reconciliation creep,” where anti-gun lawmakers quietly attach new taxes in massive budget bills.

✅ To permanently protect law-abiding citizens from a law that was designed from the start to suppress constitutional rights.

🔔 Stay Engaged

We’ve seen what sustained grassroots pressure can accomplish. The NFA tax repeal looked impossible just a year ago, and now it’s law. But we cannot let this be the final step.

✅ Support the legal challenges now underway. Join, Donate or support the groups that are pushing these lawsuits:

• Silencer Shop Foundation
• Gun Owners of America, Inc. (“GOA”)
• Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition (“FRAC”)
• B&T USA, LLC
• Palmetto State Armory, LLC
• SilencerCo
• Weapons Research, LLC (“SilencerCo”)
• Gun Owners Foundation (“GOF”)

✅ Demand your representatives commit to full NFA repeal.

✅ Never assume this victory will stand unchallenged.