FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, July 27, 2025
Washington, D.C. – In a brazen move to shield the National Firearms Act from repeal, the Senate Parliamentarian ruled provisions in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” deregulating suppressors and short-barreled weapons from the National Firearms Act do not comply with the Byrd Rule, a technical provision used to block legislation deemed “extraneous” to the federal budget. But according to the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR), this is a political cop-out, not a legal decision.
“The Parliamentarian’s ruling is total garbage,” said Dudley Brown, President of the National Association for Gun Rights. “The NFA is explicitly a tax law. This partisan ruling is just another excuse to protect the unconstitutional tax-and-register regime of the NFA.”
The pro-gun provisions in the reconciliation package aimed to eliminate the burdensome $200 tax and registration requirement for suppressors and short-barreled rifles and shotguns — relics of a failed era of gun control that still criminalize Americans for possessing basic firearm accessories and weapons with barrels shorter than sixteen inches.
“Any so-called ‘advisor’ who can’t see that a tax repeal is a budget item has no business telling Senators how to vote,” Brown added. “GOP leadership has one option: ignore the parliamentarian and override this nonsense. Anything less is surrender.”
NAGR is calling on Senate leadership, including Vice President J.D. Vance and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, to take immediate action to correct this “advisement” and move forward with the vote to gut the NFA’s most abusive provisions.
“This is our biggest chance in decades to start tearing down the NFA, and it’s not over yet,” said Brown. “We expect pro-gun Senators to fight like hell, not cower and run for cover behind bureaucratic opinions.”
The National Association for Gun Rights encourages members and supporters to flood the Senate switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and demand action: Bypass the Parliamentarian.
For more information, please contact Taylor Rhodes at media@gunrights.org.
The National Association for Gun Rights is a 501(c)(4) organization headquartered in Loveland, Colorado, dedicated to defending the Second Amendment and fighting for the rights of peaceable Americans to keep and bear arms. Since its founding in 2001, NAGR has worked to hold anti-gun politicians accountable and promote maximum individual liberty by mobilizing more than 4.5 million members and grassroots activists nationwide.
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