One Big Beautiful Update, Part 1

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The debate as to the Trump administration’s support for the Second Amendment has come to a disappointing end, with President Donald Trump and his Attorney General Pam Bondi finally revealing their anti-gun agenda in full view of all Americans. In case you’re wondering, this is the first in a series of updates following Silencer Shop Foundation v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), also known as the One Big Beautiful Lawsuit, a legal challenge to the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) that began with the passing of H.R. 1, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill. 

In July of this year, I wrote The One Big Betrayal in the One Big Beautiful Bill, detailing the controlled demolition of our hopes to remove short-barreled firearms, silencers, and AOWs from the illegal and unconstitutional NFA, a law so duplicitous that it had to be passed as a tax and hidden in the Internal Revenue Code lest it be unpalatable at a time when infringing upon Constitutional rights was still considered faux pas. These efforts were led by Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune and championed by the Trump administration through JD Vance’s refusal to sidestep the corrupt Parliamentarian.  

In October, I followed up by writing One Big Beautiful Lawsuit, covering a legal challenge to the NFA written and submitted by Silencer Shop, Silencer Shop Foundation, Gun Owners of America (GOA),  B&T USA, SilencerCo, Palmetto State Armory (PSA), and Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition (FRAC). The suit was drafted and filed on the Fourth of July; the same day President Trump signed H.R. 1 into law. 

If you have yet to read the two referenced articles, check your subscriptions or look them up at FirearmsNews.com for a comprehensive background on the entire story up to this point. To summarize, the One Big Beautiful Lawsuit addresses 1930s Supreme Court cases United States v. Sonzinsky and United States v. Constantine, in which the Court held that any provision that does not generate revenue cannot be justified as a tax. Since the One Big Beautiful Bill zeroed the manufacture and transfer tax on nearly all NFA-regulated firearms, the lawsuit correctly concludes that the Constitutional foundation on which the NFA previously rested, which was dubious at best, has now been dissolved.

“DOJ’s response to this lawsuit will unequivocally answer once and for all where this administration stands on the Second Amendment. The government can choose to concede the matter and not contest the lawsuit, signaling sincerity in President Trump’s and Attorney General Bondi’s assurances that they believe the Second Amendment is not a second-class right… On the other hand, resistance to this lawsuit of any kind ends the debate abruptly, confirming that you can take a New York Democrat out of New York, but you can’t make him a conservative President,” I said in my previous article, One Big Beautiful Lawsuit. 

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the response is in, and it is what we expected here at Firearms News magazine, yet entirely what I had hoped to be wrong about. After a short extension granted by the federal court, the DOJ submitted its response on November 20 in full-throated support of the NFA, asking the judge to deny the suit’s motion for summary judgment and instead grant a government motion for summary judgment that would reject hearing the case entirely. The DOJ even refers to NFA items as weapons of war, particularly susceptible to criminal use, making its response indistinguishable from that which we would expect from a Biden or Obama administration. 

I must take a moment to remind everyone why the Second Amendment exists in the first place. It isn’t about hunting, sports shooting, or even simple defense of the home. It is about defense from unchecked power, specifically the government’s variety of tyranny, often preceded by abject corruption. Sound familiar? It should. This is why the Second Amendment’s no-nonsense language permits zero tolerance for infringement. Clearly, our Founding Fathers meant for Americans to be capable of challenging and defending against such tyranny (don’t forget about genocide); therefore, it is nonsensical and corrupt to suggest that any weapon be reserved for those representing the government and not for the average citizen. This includes those firearms that the left, including Trump and Bondi, likes to refer to as “weapons of war.”

Further, the DOJ argues that although revenue will no longer exist in the form of $200 tax stamps per purchase by citizens, the NFA remains a valid exercise of Congress's taxing power because businesses that import, manufacture, or deal NFA items continue to pay a Special Occupational Tax (SOT) to the government. This would be like repealing the federal income tax but forcing you to continue filing a personal tax return simply because corporate taxes still exist. 

It is important to remember that the $200 tax stamp back in 1934 was equivalent to approximately $5,000 today, making the NFA nothing more than a scheme to tax ordinary citizens out of the ability to exercise their Constitutional rights. The SOT is simply a provision that allows businesses to pay a flat rate of $500 to $1,000, depending on the company’s annual revenue, covering all tax stamps for that business’s import, manufacture, or transfer of NFA items per calendar year. But just when you thought the government had reached its peak in presenting bad arguments, it doubled down. “Apart from the taxing power, Congress has the authority to enact the challenged NFA requirements under the Commerce Clause,” according to the DOJ’s response. 

I find it offensive that the government is so intent on corrupt interpretations of Congress’s power to tax and the purposeful misuse of the Commerce Clause to suppress liberties that are not only enshrined in the United States Constitution but also enumerated in the Bill of Rights. Ironically, I never hear them quote the actual Second Amendment. Make no mistake, this is because they think Americans are stupid and that they themselves are above the law. But would they triple down and confirm this? You bet!

“Buttressing Congress's power to tax and regulate interstate commerce, the Necessary and Proper Clause authorizes Congress ‘[t]o make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution’ the federal government's powers. That constitutional provision ‘grants Congress broad authority to enact federal legislation,’” according to DOJ’s response.

The Bondi DOJ, under Trump, is arguing here that the government can do anything it pleases as long as it deems the action “necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the federal government's powers.” This is a dangerous and very telling argument, and when faced with the fact that everything this administration has done to protect the Second Amendment is easily reversible by the next administration, the grift becomes clear. Trump is giving the Second Amendment community a few scraps that can easily be taken away later, buying their loyalty and support while he needs it. He lied to Americans regarding support for the Second Amendment, and so did Pam Bondi. 

As I said from the onset, the debate is over. I don’t want to hear any of the usual mindless drivel in support of this clown administration either. No, I wouldn’t have preferred Kamala and Tampon Tim, and I will never vote Democrat, but I’m not making the mistake of thinking that voting for Trump was a vote for America First, the Constitution, or American values. Avoid the trap of letting your political decisions rule your self-esteem and realize that we’ve been swindled by a man, who prior to the last decade, was aligned socially and politically with democrats, and was the toast of their parties, events, and fundraisers. There is zero argument at this point to support the Trump administration as pro-Second Amendment. Let that sink in. 

Darwin Nercesian is a long-time gun rights advocate and shooter of targets far, far away. As a news field editor at Firearms News, Darwin writes about the Second Amendment, firearms, and related gear. Follow him on Instagram, X, and YouTube @DTOE_Official.

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