On October 7, the coalition of gun rights groups that filed what they called “One Big Beautiful Lawsuit” on July 4 filed a request for summary judgment to declare provisions of the National Firearms Act (NFA) as unconstitutional.
Silencer Shop v. Bondi was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas earlier this year, just shortly after President Trump signed the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which ended the excise tax on NFA items, as we reported.
The plaintiff list in this lawsuit is significant and includes:
- Silencer Shop Foundation
- Gun Owners of America, Inc.
- Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition
- B&T USA, LLC
- Palmetto State Armory, LLC
- SilencerCo Weapons Research, LLC (doing business as SilencerCo)
- Gun Owners Foundation
- Brady Wetz.
The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the 1934 National Firearms Act given that the excise tax is no longer in effect:
…the NFA no longer imposes any tax on the vast majority of firearms it purports to regulate. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Congress and the President enacted on July 4, 2025, zeroes the manufacture and transfer tax on nearly all NFA-regulated firearms. That means the constitutional foundation on which the NFA rested has dissolved…. And the NFA cannot be upheld under any other Article I power. With respect to the untaxed firearms, the Act is now unconstitutional.
In moving for summary judgment, the parties are seeking, “a declaratory judgment that certain provisions of the National Firearms Act (NFA) are unconstitutional and an injunction to halt their enforcement as applied to newly ‘untaxed’ firearms — including short-barreled shotguns, short-barreled rifles, silencers, and so-called ‘any other weapons’ (AOWs),” according to an email alert by Gun Owners of America.
Readers should be reminded that in February, President Trump issued an Executive Order to Protect the Second Amendment directed at Pam Bondi, in her role as head of the Justice Department. All eyes are now on the Bondi Justice Department to see what their response will be in regard to this motion. Bondi and the Justice Department have been inconsistent with how they have treated various Second Amendment cases over the last eight months.
See our Pam Bondi Second Amendment Action Tracker here.
The gauntlet has been thrown, and plaintiffs expect a response shortly, writing, “With the filing of this motion for summary judgment, GOA and GOF now expect the Trump Administration to take an official position on untaxed firearm registration and file a response on or before November 6, 2025.”
A separate but similar lawsuit known as Brown v. ATF was filed by another coalition of gun rights groups in August of 2025.
