Gun rights groups involved in obtaining a limited injunction against part of the National Firearms Act pertaining to sales taxes on silencers and certain guns are using the court ruling to drive a broader membership recruitment effort.
Groups including Gun Owners of America and the Texas State Rifle Association, which is affiliated with the NRA, did not waste any time reaching out to potential members by soliciting them to pay a fee to join.
The NRA blasted an email to its marketing list offering a one-year deal to join the Texas State Rifle Association and the NRA for a reduced price, while Gun Owners of America also encouraged firearms activists to join their ranks to enjoy injunctive relief as well.
Judge James Wesley Hendrix, a Trump appointee to the bench in Texas, ruled Aug. 5 that when Congress zeroed out a tax on the sales or transfer of silencers and short-barreled long guns last year, it erased the constitutional foundation for the paperwork and registration requirements that were part of the 1934 gun law.
Lawmakers said they needed the registrations to administer the tax, but Judge Hendrix said that without a tax, there was no need for a registration.
The regulatory provisions are unconstitutional because they exceed congressional authority, the judge wrote.
He limited his ruling exclusively to the plaintiffs in two cases before him, and to their members and customers.
But the plaintiffs include major gun-rights groups who count as members millions of gun owners and some firearms manufacturers, retailers, and importers.
Commercial plaintiffs covered by the injunction are Silencer Shop Foundation, Palmetto State Armory, and B&T USA. The 15 states that were plaintiffs in the lawsuit were: Texas, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
GOA tested its victory with fellow plaintiff the Silencer Shop in Leander, Texas, when GOA members Brandon Herrera and Wes Virdell became the first Americans in 92 years to lawfully acquire suppressors without NFA registration.
The group said it demonstrated just how dramatically the Second Amendment landscape has shifted following the court’s injunction.
Both the NRA and GOA say they are still seeking guidance from the Justice Department, which has 60 days to appeal from the date that the judge filed his order.
“To be clear, GOA told the judge to issue an injunction for everyone because the Second Amendment doesn’t just apply to plaintiffs and the statute is unconstitutional for one person,” said GOA’s Director of Federal Affairs Aidan Johnston.
“If the statute’s unconstitutional for one person, it’s unconstitutional for everyone. So, I don’t think that the scope of relief makes a lot of sense in this particular case,” he said.
The NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action Executive Director John Commerford said there is too much confusion following the ruling and as of today “there hasn’t been any guidance released from the Department of Justice or [the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives].”
“We’re calling on them, and we’re very hopeful that they will provide guidance in the near future, because there are many dealers,” he said.
He added, “The vast majority of dealers are currently not transferring suppressors this way until they receive guidance from ATF that they can do this.”
• Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.
