After 24+ hours of “vote-a-rama” and numerous calls and emails from gun rights supporters, the U.S. Senate passed H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” without the Hearing Protection Act or SHORT Act attached.
UPDATE: The House Rules Committee passed H.R. 1 to the House Floor with no amendments last night, July 1st.
H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” now heads to the U.S. House, where, as you’re reading this, could be voting on it right now.
The U.S. House originally passed the bill back in May, and after over a month, the U.S. Senate finally moved to pass on June 1st.
However, the bill has taken on a different image than when the U.S. House passed it, which included language from the Hearing Protection Act, which would deregulate firearm suppressors.
The National Association for Gun Rights enacted its members and supporters to urge their legislators to add language from the SHORT Act to deregulate short-barreled firearms from the National Firearms Act (NFA) as soon as the bill reached the U.S. Senate.
After numerous phone calls and emails to U.S. Senators, the full text of both the HPA and SHORT Act were added to the bill, but they were both doomed — the Senate Parliamentarian stripped both from the bill before it could be voted on.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) had a decision to make — either override or fire the Parliamentarian and leave the HPA and SHORT Act in the bill, or squander this opportunity to make a once-in-a-generation change to the NFA.
Instead, Senate Republicans floated a $0 tax stamp (contrary to the current $200 tax stamp) and left the fingerprinting and registration alone.
Unfortunately, the bill passed 50-50 out of the U.S. Senate, with Vice President J.D. Vance being the tiebreaker to advance the bill.
Taylor Rhodes, Director of Communications for the National Association for Gun Rights, took to X to say:
“Let’s be clear: gun owners were betrayed by Senate Republicans, not a parliamentarian (that was just the cover for them). A $0 tax on NFA items isn’t a win, it’s a weak half-measure to quiet the base without delivering real results.
The registry stays. The unconstitutional restrictions stay. And we’re supposed to celebrate that? We had a once-in-a-generation shot to fully deregulate suppressors and SBRs, repeal the NFA’s chokehold on our rights, and instead, GOP leadership folded under the cover of an appointed staffer (of whom Republican leadership could overrule or fire at any time).
Gun owners aren’t fooled. We’re not in this fight for symbolic scraps. We want the whole thing — no tax, no registry, NO COMPROMISES.”
The National Association for Gun Rights is actively engaging its members to call their Representative and demanding they add HPA and SHORT Act back into the bill.
A vote on the bill is expected tomorrow, July 2nd, in the U.S. House
