Second Amendment supporters rightly celebrated when Congress eliminated the long-standing $200 tax on National Firearms Act (NFA)- governed items, which include short-barreled rifles (SBRs). But the mission is far from over.
On Monday, the National Rifle Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, Second Amendment Foundation, and American Suppressor Association lent their considerable weight to the defense in United States v. Machamer.
The groups jointly filed an amicus brief arguing that SBRs are protected firearms, and the NFA registration requirement fails Bruen’s mandated application of the nation’s historical tradition of gun control laws.
2A groups challenging specifics of defendant’s prosecution
FBI agents arrested Christopher Machamer of North Canton, Ohio, in 2024 after authorities found several AR-15 style rifles with barrels shorter than the NFA minimum. A wide array of charges related to firearms followed, and he received a sentence of more than five years.
These gun rights organizations did not challenge every charge in the case but zeroed in on his conviction for possessing SBRs without NFA permission.
A lower court ruled that SBRs are “unusual or dangerous” and thus not protected “arms” under the Second Amendment. That claim bears further examination.
Second Amendment protects weapons in ‘common’ use
According to the brief, Americans own 1,178,348 registered SBRs as of last month. While dangerousness is in the eye of the beholder, unusual is not.
The simple fact is that many law-abiding citizens possess these weapons, as they are legal in 45 states. As for the government’s claims, prosecutors cited an early 17th-century Virginia census that noted the number of weapons in the home along with livestock, boats, and even plants.
Never mind that, under colonial law, men were required to possess firearms and ammunition to be useful in local militias. That statute served only to ensure that colonists were indeed abiding by the rules–and each had to supply their own personal weapon.
The brief urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to recognize that these weapons are hardly unusual and, being such, should not be subjected to NFA registration requirements.
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