The rules around machine guns are particularly onerous. Not just do you have to pay the $200 tax stamp to buy one, the fact that you can’t own one made after 1986 unless you have special licenses just makes it even more expensive as those guns are destroyed, stolen, or just worn out over time.
At least we got rid of the tax stamp on short-barrelled rifles and shotguns, and for suppressors.
Now, Rep. Lauren Boebert wants to do the same for machine guns, and Gun Owners of America is absolutely here for it.
From a press release:
Gun Owners of America (GOA) is proud to endorse Representative Lauren Boebert’s bill introduced today on the week of the 40th anniversary of the Hughes Amendment becoming law. The Freedom from Taxes Act of 2026 would reduce the $200 NFA tax on machine guns (and destructive devices) to $0.
For the last 92 years, law-abiding Americans have had their Second Amendment rights infringed through a draconian and unconstitutional $200 “sin” tax on the transfer of each machine gun. Representative Boebert’s bill would finish what Congress started in the One Big Beautiful Bill last year: reducing National Firearms Act excise taxes.
Erich Pratt, GOA’s Senior Vice President, issued the following statement:
“From its inception, GOA opposed the Hughes Amendment when it was signed into law. Forty years later, GOA still opposes any infringements on the right of the people to keep and bear arms. That’s why Gun Owners of America is proud to endorse Representative Boebert’s bill that would reduce the $200 NFA tax on machine guns. Under this GOA-backed legislation, the right to own a machine gun without paying a ‘sin’ tax would be fully restored—just like the Founding Fathers intended.”
Representative Lauren Boebert, of Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, issued the following statement:
“Taxing our constitutional rights is unacceptable and unconstitutional. The Freedom from Taxes Act builds on the progress we made in the One Big Beautiful Bill by completely eliminating the final NFA taxes on machine guns and destructive devices. My bill also eliminates the burdensome Special Occupational Tax that’s been crushing our small businesses and manufacturers. The government should not be imposing penalties on law-abiding citizens exercising their Second Amendment rights.”
Now, this isn’t the very best we can ask for, but this is going to be enough of an uphill fight as it is. We’re not getting a full repeal of the NFA, which is what I personally want.
Still, this modest reduction in cost for these weapons is a decent place to start. We can go elsewhere later, but repealing the tax stamp will give us some leverage down the road.
After all, the doomsayers on the anti-gun side will claim this would create so much more crime and carnage, as they said when we did this with supporessors and SBRs, only for it not to pan out that way. That’s something we can point to in order to make the case that they’re full of it, just as they’ve always been.
The question is whether there’s enough time to make this happen before the midterms. I ask because we don’t quite know how that will shake out right now. Redistricting efforts are underway in so many places that it may well means GOP gains, but history says the president’s party loses seats in the midterms, and some people aren’t fond of these redistricting efforts in general, so who knows.
So, the best bet is to get this Congress–the one that repealed the tax stamp on other NFA items–to act on it here and now.
It’s a modest gain, but a gain, and while I won’t be satisfied with it, it’s definitely a valid first stop, so I’m here for it, too.
Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.
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