On August 5, 2026, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix looked at the National Firearms Act's registration requirements for suppressors, short-barreled rifles, and short-barreled shotguns and did something the ATF never expected. He struck them down as unconstitutional — not in one state, but across fifteen.
The case, brought by Gun Owners of America and a coalition of fifteen pro-gun states, argued that when Congress zeroed out the NFA's transfer and making taxes through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, it pulled the constitutional rug out from under the entire regulatory scheme. Judge Hendrix, sitting in the Northern District of Texas, agreed. The NFA's registration requirements — Form 1 and Form 4 applications, mandatory fingerprinting, photography mandates — were upheld for decades under Congress's taxing power. No tax, no power.
"The challenged NFA provisions are unconstitutional," Judge Hendrix wrote. "Congress's choice to eliminate the transfer and making taxes matters, and the defendants cannot save the NFA's regulatory scheme by referring to a power that Congress never invoked. Efforts to render the NFA constitutional must come from Congress, not this Court."
That's a federal judge telling the government: you broke your own legal scaffolding, and I'm not going to rebuild it for you.
The states in the coalition read like a roll call of constitutional seriousness: Texas, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, who helped lead the charge, praised the ruling as a landmark victory for Second Amendment rights.
Erich Pratt, Senior Vice President of Gun Owners of America, called it "a historic victory for the Second Amendment," noting that "the federal government" can no longer "keep its registry of guns after Congress has eliminated the gun tax." GOA's Director of Federal Affairs, Aidan Johnston, put the timeline in perspective: "Last year, GOA worked with Congress and President Trump to eliminate a nearly 100-year-old tax on suppressors and short-barreled firearms."
Ninety-two years. That's how long the NFA's registration apparatus has been grinding away at gun owners who wanted to purchase a suppressor without a federal permission slip. Congress finally cut the tax. And now the court has confirmed what should have been obvious: a regulatory regime built on the taxing power doesn't survive when there's no tax.
Gun-control advocates will point out that Judge Hendrix stayed the injunction for seven days to give the DOJ a window to seek emergency appellate relief. Which is standard procedure in any injunction of this magnitude. The fact that a stay exists doesn't mean the ruling is fragile — it means the judge followed the rules while gutting the NFA's enforcement mechanism.
For years, the NFA's defenders argued these registration requirements were untouchable — part of the bedrock of federal firearms law. Then Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Then a federal judge read the Constitution.
Turns out bedrock cracks when you remove the foundation.