Texas gun owners are leading the nation as Americans purchase suppressors in record numbers following the elimination of the federal government’s $200 National Firearms Act tax.
According to data provided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Texas recorded 23,133 NFA background checks in June –– more than any other state in the country and well ahead of second-place Virginia at 18,235 and Florida at 11,782.
Nationwide, the FBI conducted 166,677 NFA checks in June, a 177 percent increase over the same month last year. More than 845,000 suppressor applications were submitted during the first five months of 2026, with approximately 768,000 approved.
The surge sends a clear message: when government removes even one barrier to the exercise of the Second Amendment, law-abiding Americans respond —and Texans lead the way.
But eliminating the tax was not the same as deregulation.
Congress Removed the Tax—But Preserved the Registry
Beginning January 1, Congress reduced the NFA tax on suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and certain other regulated weapons from $200 to zero.
Those items, however, remain trapped under the National Firearms Act.
Gun owners must still submit fingerprints and photographs, undergo a federal approval process, and register their property with the ATF. Suppressors and short-barreled firearms continue to be regulated under the same framework governing machine guns.
That was not supposed to be the final outcome.
The House-passed version of the One Big Beautiful Bill would have removed suppressors from the NFA, while the Senate proposal expanded deregulation to short-barreled rifles and shotguns.
Then the Senate parliamentarian advised that those provisions violated the Byrd Rule and could not remain in the reconciliation bill without 60 votes.
Republican leaders could have challenged that interpretation and forced a public fight over whether unelected Senate staff should be allowed to block the restoration of constitutional rights.
Instead, they surrendered.
The deregulation language was stripped, the tax was reduced to zero, and weak-kneed Republicans like Senator John Cornyn celebrated the remaining half measure as a historic victory.
Texas Gun Rights Refused the Half Measure
Texas Gun Rights refused to participate in the victory parade.
Alongside the National Association for Gun Rights and Gun Owners of America, Texas Gun Rights pressured Republican senators to reject the parliamentarian’s interpretation and finish the job.
These organizations warned that eliminating the tax while preserving the NFA’s registration and enforcement structure would leave the federal gun-control machinery intact and force gun owners to continue seeking government permission before possessing constitutionally protected firearms and accessories.
Not only that, they warned that eliminating the tax only would give Democrats a new weapon to use against gun owners when they regained control — and they were right.
Other gun groups praised the final bill and moved directly toward litigation.
But gun owners should never have been forced to rely on years of expensive court battles to obtain what Congress had the votes and authority to deliver directly.
Congress Abandoned the NFA’s Original Justification
The parliamentarian’s ruling was especially indefensible because the National Firearms Act was enacted as a tax law.
When the NFA reached the U.S. Supreme Court in Sonzinsky v. United States in 1937, the Court upheld its taxation and registration provisions as an exercise of Congress’ taxing power.
Congress has now reduced the tax on suppressors and short-barreled firearms to zero while preserving the registry, federal approval process, and criminal penalties that were supposedly created to administer and enforce that tax.
The government abandoned the tax while retaining the gun-control regime built around it.
That contradiction has opened a major constitutional challenge to the remaining NFA restrictions. Gun owners may ultimately prevail, but only after years of litigation and millions of dollars in expenses that Congress could have prevented.
The Cost of Republican Surrender
Those millions of dollars could have been used elsewhere in the fight for the Second Amendment.
That matters during a critical election year.
George Soros-backed organizations and radical national Democrats are pouring resources into Texas and other states to elect anti-gun candidates, defeat pro-gun conservatives, and build support for Red Flag gun-confiscation laws, universal gun registration, semi-automatic firearm bans, magazine restrictions, and other attacks on gun owners.
The money now required for attorneys, court filings, expert witnesses, and appeals could have helped expose that agenda, educate voters, mobilize gun owners, and highlight candidates willing to defend the Second Amendment.
Instead, donors are being forced to finance a legal battle that Congress could have avoided by refusing to surrender.
Abolish the ATF and Repeal the NFA
The fight cannot end with removing suppressors and short-barreled firearms from the NFA.
For decades, the ATF has waged war against law-abiding gun owners, firearms dealers, and the Second Amendment itself.
No other enumerated constitutional right is subjected to a federal enforcement bureaucracy so directly dedicated to licensing, registering, restricting, and criminalizing its exercise.
Much of that abuse flows from the NFA, which the ATF has repeatedly used to claim sweeping regulatory authority over firearms and accessories.
Through administrative rules and reinterpretations carrying the practical weight of law, unelected bureaucrats have attempted to redefine firearms, criminalize previously lawful conduct, and bypass Congress.
Repealing the NFA would eliminate one of the primary sources of that claimed authority. Abolishing the ATF would ensure that another federal bureaucracy cannot continue inventing new gun-control schemes whenever political power changes hands.
Texas’ nation-leading NFA numbers show how eagerly law-abiding Americans will exercise their rights when government gets even partially out of the way.
Removing the tax was progress. Leaving the registry and federal permission system intact was capitulation.
Texas Gun Rights will never negotiate away the rights of gun owners, declare surrender a victory, or place the political comfort of Republican politicians above its members and the God-given rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment.
Sign the petition today demanding that Congress Abolish the ATF and Repeal the NFA once and for all.
Then chip in to Texas Gun Rights to help continue the unapologetic fight for gun owners and hold every politician accountable-–regardless of party.
