To say I’m still miffed about what happened with the Hearing Protection Act is putting it too mildly. We have a golden opportunity here where the measure can be tacked onto the budget bill, which cannot be filibustered, and will stop anti-gunners in Congress from doing anything.

Instead, we get an elimination in the cost of a tax stamp for a suppressor, but not for other NFA items, and not for deregulating suppressors.

But let’s focus on the tax stamp for NFA items for a second. That seems like a small thing to do. If you’re willing to do it for suppressors, why not for short-barreled rifles and machine guns? The cost of machine guns is high enough as it is, for crying out loud, so a $200 tax stamp is nothing.

The reason given was that they couldn’t make it happen this year.

But Gun Owners of America is calling male bovine feces on that one.

🤔So let’s get this straight, @WaysandMeansGOP.

You guys included a FULL STRIKE of the federal excise tax on tanning salons, but tried to tell gun owners it wasn’t possible with the NFA. 🤨What gives? pic.twitter.com/F8XcDmcShy

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) May 19, 2025

Now, let’s understand that tanning salons use tanning beds that increase the risk of skin cancer. These are not healthy in any way, shape, or form. My father-in-law, a former competitive bodybuilder who spent a lot of time in tanning beds for his competitions, has been one of the millions who have had to be treated for skin cancer because of them.

NFA items aren’t anything of the sort. They don’t cause inadvertent health issues. 

Moreover, they’re part of our right to keep and bear arms. Yet we’re taxed just to ask if we can exercise that part of our rights, but an entire industry with significant health ramifications can see the federal excise tax removed?

Look, don’t get me wrong. I actually don’t care if tanning salons aren’t taxed anymore. Since I’m generally anti-tax as a matter of course, this isn’t an issue for me in and of itself.

My issue is that the supposedly pro-gun Republican Party that gutted two important pro-gun bills that sought to nerf the National Firearms Act were soundly dismissed, and even removing the cost for tax stamps across the board was a non-starter, but they can do something like this.

About a month ago, I said it was important that we make Republicans afraid for their jobs if they didn’t step up and support the Second Amendment through more than just words.

Right now, they know we’re not going to vote Democrat, and they’re confident we can’t rally support around any opposition in the primaries. That means they figure they can take a dump on us anytime they want, and we just have to take it.

Someone got something from a tanning industry lobbyist, slipped this in, and since it’s pretty innocuous, no one said anything until GOA posted this on X.

But now we know. Now we know, and I’m more than miffed now.

Remember this come the midterms.