The Second Amendment Foundation has filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to grant cert in George Peterson v. United States, a case squarely targeting the National Firearms Act’s registration and special taxation requirements for suppressors.
SAF is joined by the NRA, the American Suppressor Association, California Rifle & Pistol Association, Second Amendment Law Center, Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
SAF’s Director of Legal Research and Education, Kostas Moros, didn’t mince words: “Suppressors are clearly ‘arms’ protected by the plain text of the Second Amendment, and there is no historical tradition supporting the NFA’s burdensome per-arm registration and taxation scheme. History shows that the Founding generation would never have tolerated requiring every individual firearm or component to be registered with the government.”
The brief argues that the NFA’s registration and taxation requirements have no grounding in historical tradition and that their effects extend well beyond the NFA itself — a point SAF says the Court needs to address directly. SAF is also pursuing its own independent NFA challenges in courts around the country; this amicus is meant to complement those efforts.
SAF founder and EVP Alan Gottlieb framed it simply: “SAF is committed to defending the right to keep and bear arms in all its forms, including the use of suppressors for safe and effective self-defense.”
If the Court takes the case, it would have the opportunity to settle whether suppressors are constitutionally protected arms and whether the federal government can continue taxing and registering their way around the Second Amendment.
For more information, visit SAF.org.
More on TTAG Surrounding the NFA: