On October 9th, a coalition of gun rights groups filed a third major lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Firearms Act of 1934.
Jensen v. ATF was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Amarillo division.
The suit is brought by FPC Action Foundation, three individual citizens, Hot Shots Custom, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and Texas State Rifle Association.
The 32-page complaint is brought against Pamela J. Bondi, in her official capacity as Attorney General of the United States, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (“ATF”), Daniel P. Driscoll, in his official capacity as Acting Director of the ATF.
The request for declaratory and injunctive relief addresses the fact that the excise tax for NFA items was removed from a bill that President Trump signed on July 4, making null and void the remaining NFA restrictions on arms:
That constitutional basis, however, has recently been eliminated with respect to the making, transferring, and receiving of several items which are defined as “firearms” by the NFA, including suppressors, short-barreled rifles, and short-barreled shotguns, thus making the NFA’s restrictions on those items unconstitutional as applied to those arms.
In addition to challenging the regulatory framework, the lawsuit addresses the constitutionality of restrictions on specific arms purely as it relates to the Second Amendment:
…the Second Amendment presumptively protects the People’s right to keep and bear all arms. If an item qualifies as an “arm,” the Second Amendment applies to it, and the government bears the burden of proving, at a minimum, that there is a historical tradition of regulating arms to support the challenged regulatory scheme. Because suppressors and short-barreled rifles are neither dangerous nor unusual, and because there is no tradition of requiring the registration and attendant regulation of protected arms, the NFA’s regulatory scheme is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment with respect to suppressors and short-barreled rifles.
Two other major lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the NFA include Silencer Shop v. Bondi, and Brown v. ATF filed on July 4, and August 1, respectively.
