{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.daines.senate.gov/2026/08/11/daines-clyde-lead-letter-urging-doj-to-protect-second-amendment-rights-apply-ruling-nationwide/", "Daines, Clyde Lead Letter Urging DOJ to Protect Second Amendment Rights, Apply Ruling Nationwide", "2026-08-11", "2026", "2026-08", "Republican", "Senate", "MT", "Steve Daines", "D000618", "www.daines.senate.gov", "daines", "https://www.daines.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Representative Andrew Clyde (GA-09) today sent a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche following a decision by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas that struck down the National Firearm Act\u2019s (NFA) registration requirements for suppressors, short-barreled shotguns (SBSs), and short-barreled rifles (SBRs). The letter urges the Department of Justice to accept the court\u2019s ruling and eliminate the remaining unconstitutional NFA requirements for all gun owners.\n\n\u201cThe court\u2019s opinion tracks precisely the position this Congress articulated when we passed Section 70436 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.3 The court correctly recognized that the NFA\u2019s registration, application, and reporting requirements for short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, silencers, and AOWs have rested only on the taxing power, and that a tax set to zero can no longer support the regulatory machinery built to collect it. The court likewise rejected, correctly in our view, the Department\u2019s arguments that these requirements could be repurposed to support the special occupational tax or salvaged under the Necessary and Proper Clause or the Commerce Clause \u2013 powers Congress never invoked in 1934 and has never since invoked for these provisions.\n\n\u2026 We ask the DOJ to decline any appeal of the court\u2019s decision; to immediately apply the court\u2019s ruling nationwide to all persons, regardless of whether they are formally covered by the court\u2019s injunction; and to promptly initiate rulemaking to rescind or amend the challenged NFA regulations as to untaxed firearms, so that this outcome is made permanent. Administering a split enforcement regime based on party status is neither workable nor a sound use of the Department\u2019s resources, and the DOJ should not wait for the rulemaking process to conclude before bringing its practice into conformity with the court\u2019s ruling,\u201d they wrote in the letter.\n\nRead the full letter HERE.\n\nSenators John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), John Cornyn (R-Tex.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) joined Daines and Clyde in sending the letter.\n\nRepresentatives Brian Babin (TX-36), Sheri Biggs (SC-03), Andy Biggs (AZ-05), Lauren Boebert (CO-04), Josh Brecheen (OK-02), Eric Burlison (MO-07), Tim Burchett (TN-02), Kat Cammack (FL-03), Earl Carter (GA-11), Ben Cline (VA-06), Mike Collins (GA-10), Michael Cloud (TX-27), Warren Davidson (OH-08), Scott DesJarlais (TN-04), Eli Crane (AZ-01), Richard Hudson (NC-09), Clay Higgins (LA-03), Wesley Hunt (TX-38), Morgan Griffith (VA-09), Morgan Luttrell (TX-08), Mary Miller (IL-15), Riley Moore (WV-02), Ralph Norman (SC 05), Jimmy Patronis (FL-01), Scott Perry (PA-10), Derek Schmidt (KS-02), Keith Self (TX-03), Austin Scott (GA-08), Pete Sessions (TX-17), Victoria Spartz (IN-05), Claudia Tenney (NY-24), Derrick Van Orden (WI-03), Randy Weber (TX-14), and Bruce Westerman (AR-04) also joined in sending the letter.\n\nStatement of Support:\n\n\u201cGun Owners of America worked with Congress and President Trump to eliminate the National Firearms Act tax on suppressors and short barrels\u2014teeing up our constitutional challenge. The court just confirmed what everyone already knew: $0 taxes are invalid and the NFA is unconstitutional! GOA is grateful to Representative Clyde, Senator Daines, and all the Congressmen and Senators who are urging the Department of Justice to restore the Second Amendment by codifying GOA\u2019s legal victory against the NFA into ATF regulations,\u201d said Aidan Johnston, Director of Federal Affairs, Gun Owners of America\n\nBackground:\n\nDaines lauded the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruling that struck down the National Firearm Act\u2019s registration requirements for suppressors, SBSs, and SBRs- read the release HERE.\n\nDaines has been leading efforts to eliminate the NFA\u2019s $200 excise tax since 2024- read the release HERE. In December 2025 Daines led a letter with Representative Clyde to the U.S. Department of Justice urging them to end their defense of the NFA registration requirements in court- read it HERE.\n\nDaines led the charge to include this provision in the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, which was signed into law by President Trump in July 2025. Following the bill\u2019s passage, Second Amendment groups sued the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), arguing that the federal government lost its constitutional justification for maintaining the NFA registration requirements for suppressors, SBRs, and SBSs after Congress passed Daines\u2019 provision zeroing out the $200 NFA excise tax on those items.\n\nThe court decision held that the NFA registration scheme for suppressors, SBSs, and SBRs is unconstitutional as applied to firearms Congress no longer taxes.\n\n###", 1, "2026-08-12T06:18:38Z", "2026-08-12T06:20:33Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.daines.senate.gov/2026/08/11/daines-clyde-lead-letter-urging-doj-to-protect-second-amendment-rights-apply-ruling-nationwide/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7770881056785583, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}