By SUZANNE DOWNING
Aug. 5, 2026 – Alaska is among 15 states that won a major gun-rights victory Wednesday when a federal judge ruled that key registration requirements under the National Firearms Act of 1934 are unconstitutional when applied to firearms that are no longer taxed.
US District Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the Northern District of Texas permanently blocked the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Department of Justice from enforcing the challenged provisions against the plaintiffs, including Alaska, its agencies and political subdivisions.
For Alaska, that protection extends to state and local government entities—including law-enforcement agencies—that acquire or possess covered firearms for official purposes.
The injunction also protects Gun Owners of America and other participating organizations, their members, and the current and future customers of the firearm businesses involved in the case. It is not a universal injunction covering every American solely because of where that person lives.
The case, Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF, challenged federal registration and approval requirements for suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns and a category of miscellaneous firearms known under federal law as “any other weapons.”
Congress eliminated the $200 making and transfer taxes on those firearms through President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025. The zero-dollar tax took effect Jan. 1, 2026, but Congress left the NFA’s registration and approval system in place.
Hendrix ruled that the remaining regulatory structure could no longer be justified under Congress’ taxing power because the government was no longer collecting a tax on those firearms.
“The challenged NFA provisions are unconstitutional,” Hendrix wrote. “Congress’s choice to eliminate the transfer and making taxes matters, and the defendants cannot save the NFA’s regulatory scheme by referring to a power that Congress never invoked. Efforts to render the NFA constitutional must come from Congress, not this Court.”
The federal government argued that the regulations could be sustained under Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce. Hendrix rejected that argument, finding that Congress enacted the NFA under its taxing authority and did not tie the challenged provisions to interstate commerce.
The ruling blocks enforcement of several NFA provisions requiring federal registration, prior ATF approval and the submission of Form 1 and Form 4 applications. Those applications have required fingerprints, photographs, home addresses and detailed identifying information about both the applicant and firearm.
The NFA registry records covered firearms along with the names and addresses of those legally entitled to possess them. Violations can carry prison time, fines and forfeiture of the firearm.
Alaska joined Texas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming as state plaintiffs.
The states argued that their agencies and employees were burdened by federal compliance requirements when obtaining and possessing NFA firearms for law-enforcement purposes. Hendrix found that Alaska and the other states were subject to the same regulatory burdens as Texas and specifically extended the injunction to their agencies and political subdivisions.
The decision does not strike down the entire National Firearms Act. Machine guns and destructive devices remain subject to the federal tax and other restrictions, and the court did not issue a nationwide injunction protecting people or businesses that were not part of the litigation.
Hendrix also did not decide the plaintiffs’ separate Second Amendment claims. Because the plaintiffs prevailed on the argument that Congress exceeded its enumerated constitutional powers, the judge said there was no need to reach the Second Amendment question.
Gun Owners of America, the Gun Owners Foundation, Silencer Shop Foundation, Palmetto State Armory, SilencerCo, B&T USA, the Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition and individual gun owner Brady Wetz were among the private plaintiffs.
“This is a historic victory for the Second Amendment,” said Erich Pratt, senior vice president of Gun Owners of America. Pratt said the government could not continue maintaining and enforcing a federal gun-registration system after Congress eliminated the tax that had served as its constitutional foundation.
Aidan Johnston, GOA’s director of federal affairs, said the ruling confirmed the organization’s argument that the registration system could not survive once the tax was removed.
“Last year, GOA worked with Congress and President Trump to eliminate a nearly 100-year-old tax on suppressors and short-barreled firearms,” Johnston said. “Today’s decision affirms what GOA members have been saying all along: the archaic National Firearms Act of 1934 and its federal gun registry is unconstitutional.”
The judge stayed his order for seven days, giving the Justice Department time to ask an appellate court to halt the decision while an appeal proceeds.
Until that stay expires or an appellate court intervenes the existing federal requirements remain in effect. Gun owners should therefore not assume that the ruling has immediately eliminated NFA paperwork for everyone.
The court’s final judgment was entered Aug. 5, with the broader reasoning set out in a 66-page memorandum opinion.
