A coalition of House lawmakers has delivered a major directive to Attorney General Pamela Bondi: the National Firearms Act’s registration and transfer requirements cannot survive now that President Trump has eliminated the NFA’s tax itself.
In a sharply worded letter dated November 10, 2025, Members of Congress urged the Department of Justice to adopt and defend this position in all litigation going forward.
Thanks to the OBBB, the $200 NFA tax is now $0.
But registration requirements remain.
Yet it was Congress’s clear intent to repeal NFA registration by eliminating NFA taxes.
That’s why I’m urging the DOJ to adopt our position in all litigation concerning this critical matter. pic.twitter.com/Qw1nPtzvEB
— Rep. Andrew Clyde (@Rep_Clyde) November 11, 2025
The letter, signed by dozens of pro-Second Amendment representatives, centers on Section 70436 of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). That provision zeroed out the NFA’s $200 tax for short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, silencers, AOWs, and other regulated firearms.
The lawmakers emphasize that Congress intended this to be far more than a tax cut. They intended it to eliminate the registration and transfer requirements themselves.
Congress: The NFA Tax and Registration Scheme Are “Inseparably Linked”
The lawmakers recount the core legal history:
When Congress passed the National Firearms Act in 1934, it used its taxing power (not a general police power) to regulate NFA firearms. The tax stamp served as the mechanism through which the ATF accounted for each registered firearm.
In Sonzinsky v. United States (1937), the Supreme Court upheld the NFA only because its registration scheme was “supportable as in aid of” Congress’s taxing authority.
With the OBBBA now setting the tax rate to $0, the letter argues that the constitutional foundation for mandatory registration no longer exists.
The NFA requirements cannot “stand without the corresponding excise tax,” and the administrative machinery built around that tax now operates without constitutional grounding.
Lawmakers: Registration Requirements Must Fall
According to the letter, the intent of Congress in Section 70436 was clear:
Repeal the NFA’s registration and transfer mandates for all firearms now subject to a $0 tax.
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The Members write that the ATF historically linked the tax stamp to the firearm’s serial number, and that criminal penalties tied to the NFA concern failure to pay or register the tax.
Without a tax to pay, they argue, the registration requirement collapses with it.
Calling on DOJ to Defend Congressional Intent
The lawmakers urge the Department of Justice to:
- Adopt Congress’s stated position that the NFA registration and transfer requirements no longer apply to $0-tax firearms.
- Defend that interpretation in every relevant case, ensuring courts receive the correct legislative intent.
- Recognize that the OBBBA represents one of the most significant Second Amendment advancements in decades.
The letter also underscores President Trump’s role, calling him the “most pro-Second Amendment President in our nation’s history,” and argues that DOJ now has the opportunity to solidify one of his most impactful reforms.
A Potential Earthquake in NFA Law
If DOJ adopts and successfully advances this interpretation, the result would be historic: the effective end of NFA registration for millions of firearms previously caught in the tax-and-paperwork regime.
The signatories make it clear that Congress intended exactly that outcome when it passed the OBBBA.
The coming months will show whether DOJ stands with Congress’s intent—and whether longstanding NFA rules can survive without the tax structure they were built upon.
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