Rep. Andrew Clyde led nearly 50 House and Senate Republican colleagues in urging Attorney General Todd Blanche not to appeal a Texas ruling that struck down NFA registration requirements for certain firearms. The letter also asks the Department of Justice to apply the ruling nationwide through rulemaking.
On August 5, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF, consolidated with Jensen v. ATF, and struck down NFA registration requirements for suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns and any other weapons. The lawmakers are pressing for one national standard instead of enforcement that changes from one applicant to another.
Andrew Clyde letter to Todd Blanche
Clyde’s letter says the Department has a seven-day window under the court’s order to seek relief at the appellate level. It says an appeal would prolong regulatory uncertainty for law-abiding gun owners and businesses, and it asks the Department to decline to appeal, seek rehearing or try to narrow the ruling.
“We recognize the Department has a seven-day window under the court's order to seek relief at the appellate level, but we urge the Department not to appeal. An appeal would prolong regulatory uncertainty for law-abiding gun owners and businesses and would consume DOJ resources defending a position that this Congress and now a federal district court has said cannot stand. We ask that the Department decline to appeal, to seek rehearing, or to otherwise attempt to cabin or narrow this ruling,” Clyde wrote in the letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Nationwide rulemaking request
The same letter says immediate nationwide application is needed to avoid a split enforcement regime. Clyde wrote that the Department and ATF would otherwise have to maintain two parallel tracks for identical conduct depending on the applicant’s affiliations, including whether a person is a customer of Silencer Shop or a member of Gun Owners of America.
“The DOJ should initiate rulemaking to formally rescind or amend the challenged regulations as they apply to untaxed firearms. Rulemaking is necessary to make this outcome permanent. We urge you to begin that rulemaking process without delay, so that the immediate, nationwide application of the court's ruling is followed as promptly as the APA allows by a durable regulatory fix that does not depend on the discretion of any particular administration,” Clyde wrote.
Texas ruling after August 5
The lawmakers also said the court’s decision is the most significant victory for the Second Amendment since the National Firearms Act was enacted in 1934. Their request turns the ruling from a case-specific loss for the Department into a demand for a nationwide reset of the challenged registration rules for untaxed firearms.
The practical question now is whether the Department of Justice uses its seven-day window to seek appellate relief or lets the ruling stand and starts rulemaking. Gun owners and businesses affected by the challenged registration requirements are left with a narrow interval in which the Department can still choose the path that determines whether the Texas ruling stays limited or becomes national policy.
