South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has joined Texas and 13 other states in a lawsuit challenging a federal registry for certain firearms and accessories. The legal action, filed in Texas, involves gun owners, gun rights groups, and manufacturers who are suing the federal government. They seek a court ruling that parts of the National Firearms Act (NFA) are unconstitutional.
“I’ve always fought to protect our 2nd Amendment rights and have repeatedly stood up against government overreach. This case is about both,” said Attorney General Wilson.
The NFA was enacted in 1934, imposing a $200 tax on the manufacture and transfer of specific types of firearms—a sum that would be roughly $5,000 today due to inflation. The Supreme Court previously upheld this tax as constitutional under Congress’s authority to levy taxes.
Recently, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 4th, which eliminated the NFA’s tax requirement. With the removal of this tax, plaintiffs argue that the original constitutional justification for the NFA no longer exists. Despite this change, registration requirements and restrictions under the NFA remain in place. Plaintiffs contend these remaining provisions lack constitutional support without Congress’s taxing authority.
Among those challenging the law is a Texas gun owner who objects to providing personal information to the federal government as required by current regulations when registering or purchasing certain firearms such as short-barreled rifles, shotguns, or silencers.
The coalition supporting Texas’s lawsuit includes Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming alongside South Carolina.
