Look, here's the thing — there's nothing magical about a barrel being one-tenth of an inch shorter than some arbitrary cutoff. Yet that tiny difference can turn a perfectly legal rifle into a federal felony. That's insanity, and four major gun-rights organizations just told the Sixth Circuit exactly that.
The NRA, Firearms Policy Coalition, Second Amendment Foundation, and American Suppressor Association filed an amicus brief in United States v. Machamer arguing that short-barreled rifles are protected arms and the NFA's registration scheme can't survive constitutional scrutiny. They're absolutely right.
The case stems from an Ohio man who got hit with five years in federal prison for having AR-style rifles with 9.25-inch barrels. Yes, he had other issues — unserialized receivers and such — but the constitutional question on appeal focuses specifically on the NFA's registration requirements for SBRs.
Here's what gets me: there are over 1.17 million registered SBRs in this country. They're legal to own in 45 states. People use them for home defense, hunting, and recreational shooting. They're not unusual. They're not dangerous in some unique way. They're just rifles — slightly shorter ones.
The government's historical arguments are laughable. They cited a 1631 Virginia census that listed arms alongside corn and cattle. Really? That's supposed to justify a federal registry? That's a colonial gun MANDATE, not a registry. Other examples included laws against selling arms to foreign enemies and inspecting gunpowder storage. None of that required peaceful citizens to get federal permission slips and register their rifles.
And get this — the NFA didn't even originally target SBRs. That barrel-length minimum was added as a "safe harbor" because lawmakers worried the bill might accidentally tax ordinary hunting rifles. It was a drafting accident, not some carefully considered public safety measure. No one even mentioned SBRs having criminal use during the Senate hearings.
The Trump DOJ is defending this mess, which is disappointing. Brandon Combs from FPC put it well: they want courts to treat the Second Amendment like a second-class right — a privilege you have to pay taxes and fill out paperwork to exercise.
This is exactly the kind of case that could finally end this ridiculous registration requirement. The NFA's transfer tax on SBRs was already reduced to zero, so there's zero revenue rationale left. All that's left is a paperwork regime with no historical foundation that can still send people to prison.
The Sixth Circuit should toss this. Americans shouldn't need bureaucratic permission to exercise a constitutional right.