When Congress approved the National Firearms Act (NFA) in 1934, it justified the law as a tax measure aimed at generating revenue. However, a federal judge in Texas ruled on Wednesday, August 6th, 2026, that several provisions of the NFA no longer serve that function because Congress eliminated federal taxes on making and transferring sound suppressors, short-barreled rifles, and short-barreled shotguns in 2025.

U.S. District Judge James Hendrix concluded that removing these taxes also eliminated the constitutional basis for the ancillary regulations governing these firearms. He explained that because the current NFA does not generate revenue from untaxed firearms, its regulatory provisions cannot be upheld under Congress's taxing power.

The NFA originally targeted weapons considered favored by gangsters, including machine guns, destructive devices like bombs and grenades, silencers, rifles with barrels shorter than 16 inches, and shotguns with barrels shorter than 18 inches. Judge Hendrix noted that the federal government has no inherent police powers to address local crime but that Congress could use its power of taxation to restrict particularly dangerous guns and accessories.

Importantly, the judge emphasized that Congress enacted the challenged NFA provisions solely under the Taxing Clause and that the law cannot be retroactively justified under other powers, such as the authority to regulate interstate commerce, which Congress never invoked. The ruling does not rely on the Second Amendment but upholds the broader constitutional principle that federal powers are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution, and legislation must be authorized by one of those powers.

While the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) bars enforcement of the challenged regulations against the plaintiffs, the ruling highlights constitutional limits on federal regulatory authority following the removal of the tax rationale.

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