In this letter, they've made it clear that the DOJ is out of line with Congress' intent.

Specifically, they cite the Justice Department's recent defense of the National Firearms Act in the Gun Owners of America case that we're affectionately calling the "One Big Beautiful Lawsuit."

The case itself, Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF, centers around the recent removal of the $200 tax from items regulated by the National Firearms Act. Specifically, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, AOWs (short for "any other weapons," a catch-all term for items that don't fit neatly into the other categories of regulation), and silencers.

Previously, purchasing one of these highly regulated items would require a $200 tax payment, a background check including fingerprints and passport photos, and a lengthy wait.

But thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by President Trump in July, that $200 tax payment was removed from those aforementioned items.

Unfortunately, the registration requirements of the National Firearms Act remain. That's why we at Gun Owners of America are suing ATF and the Department of Justice to remove the registration requirements on these items.

The National Firearms Act and its registry, the NFRTR or National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, have been declared a legitimate use of Congress' article 1 power of taxation.

Keyword: "Taxation."

The NFA registry is a registry of tax payments, and those tax payments are associated with firearms. This is a sneaky way to get around calling it a gun registry, instead – it's a tax registry.

But what do you do when the tax has been decreased to zero dollars?

Well, the Department of Justice wants to keep the registration requirements in place, along with the penalties for noncompliance.

That's like if the IRS abolished the income tax but demanded that you still complete your W2 or 1099 tax forms every year, otherwise face prison time and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

To make matters worse, the DOJ used common anti-gun talking points to justify their defense of this unconstitutional registration scheme.