Senate Version of ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Could Hand a Big Win to Second Amendment Supporters

Calling it a “generational win,” Second Amendment advocates are cheering the removal of several weapons from the National Firearms Act in the version of President Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” that the Senate Finance Committee has passed.The proposal has several hurdles ahead with it needing to pass the full Senate — which could make changes to the bill as part of the dealmaking process — and then the House, which passed a narrower measure.The legislation would fully repeal the $200 tax on suppressors, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and any other weapons designated by the NFA, along with registry and paperwork requirements. The Senate version includes provisions of the proposed SHORT Act, as well as several conforming amendments that supporters say would help ease confusion arising from removing the items from the firearms act.The Senate bill would also prevent states from imposing their own restrictions based on existing state laws requiring federal registration. Suppressors are currently illegal in eight states. Courts have been considering lawsuits on those prohibitions. The Senate reconciliation bill is more expansive than the House version that would only repeal rules and taxes on suppressors — sometimes referred to as silencers — that reduce but do not eliminate the sounds that guns make when they are fired.A gun rights group, Gun Owners of America, says the legislation would represent one of the most significant advances for gun rights in decades. “The House opened the door — now the Senate is charging through it. The American people have been forced to pay hundreds of dollars and submit to federal gun registration just to own firearms that are protected by the Second Amendment. That ends now,” the senior vice president of Gun Owners of America, Erich Pratt, says. “This is a monumental step toward dismantling the ATF’s unconstitutional enforcement regime, and the Senate must finish the job.”A gun control advocacy group, Brady, already came out against the House version of the bill, calling it a “big, beautiful” gift to gun industry executives. “We do not need to speculate about how dangerous this will be. In 2019, a shooter armed with a silencer killed 12 people in Virginia Beach, and most of the victims were unaware that a mass shooting was even taking place,” the president of Brady, Kris Brown, says. “Americans will die if this becomes law, hard stop.”Giffords, a gun violence prevention group led by a former congresswoman, Gabby Giffords, is also condemning the legislation. “We’re mere hours away from the stalking and murdering of Minnesota legislators, and some Republicans are still taking their orders from greedy gun industry CEOs,” the executive director of Giffords, Emma Brown, says. “No one is better off if killers have silencers and sawed-off shotguns except the people who make money selling them. Americans are sick of this.”The Senate reconciliation bill next heads for a so-called Byrd Bath review by the Budget Committee, where non-budgetary provisions may be stripped. Because the firearms act has been held as a tax by the Supreme Court opinion in Sonzinky v. U.S., gun rights advocates say the provision should survive.The National Firearms Act has been in existence since 1934 and regulates certain firearms, including machine guns. Violations of the act are considered felonies.Gun rights advocates have labeled the excise taxes on items covered under the act as unconstitutional. The American Suppressor Association says the tax “Impedes the ability of all Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights.”President Trump has promised a rollback of gun-control policies. In February, he issued an executive order directing the attorney general to examine all possible executive actions and present a proposed plan to protect Second Amendment rights.The administration has also shifted its positions on several pending Second Amendment cases as it moves away from the Biden administration’s priorities.

Senate Version of ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Could Hand a Big Win to Second Amendment Supporters

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