Defending Gun Safety Protections

This case involves an extremist-backed effort to invalidate the National Firearms Act (NFA), a nearly 90-year-old federal law that regulates especially dangerous weapons such as machine guns, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and silencers.

The NFA was enacted in 1934 in response to rampant gun violence during the gangster era. It establishes registration and tax requirements designed to keep the most dangerous firearms out of the wrong hands and to support law enforcement efforts to prevent and investigate violent crime. For decades, courts—including the U.S. Supreme Court—have upheld the law as constitutional.

In this case, plaintiffs aligned with the Gun Owners of America seek to dismantle core provisions of the NFA, arguing that recent changes to tax rates undermine Congress’s authority to regulate these weapons. If successful, the challenge would significantly weaken longstanding gun safety protections nationwide.

The cities of Baltimore, Maryland, Columbus, Ohio, and Harris County, Texas filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the court to reject this challenge. These local governments explained that the NFA directly protects their residents, police officers, and neighborhoods by limiting access to weapons that are uniquely dangerous, easily concealed, and frequently used in serious crimes.

The cities highlighted that the NFA helps law enforcement prevent prohibited individuals from acquiring these weapons, supports joint federal-local investigations, and reduces the use of silencers that can make gunfire harder to detect and crimes harder to solve. They also explained that the law is firmly grounded in Congress’s taxing and commerce powers and is consistent with the Second Amendment and long-standing historical firearm regulations.

Democracy Forward, alongside co-counsel at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law and Waters Kraus Paul & Siegel, represents the municipalities to defend the National Firearms Act and stop extremist efforts to roll back proven, life-saving gun safety laws.