Attorney General Alan Wilson leads fight to protect 2nd Amendment in lawsuit over federal gun registry

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson joined Texas and 13 other states today in a Texas lawsuit that seeks to throw out a federal registry for certain guns and accessories. A Texas gun owner, gun rights groups, and manufacturers are suing the federal government, asking the Court to rule that parts of the National Firearms Act are unconstitutional.

“I’ve always fought to protect our 2^nd Amendment rights and have repeatedly stood up against government overreach. This case is about both,” said Attorney General Wilson.

The National Firearms Act was passed in 1934 and put a $200 tax (approximately $5,000 in today’s dollars) on the manufacture and transfer of certain types of firearms. The Supreme Court upheld the tax as constitutional under Congress’s taxing authority.

But the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Congress passed on July 4^th, removes that tax, so the constitutional basis for the NFA is gone. However, the registration requirements and restrictions in the NFA are still there. The plaintiffs argue that, without Congress’s taxing authority, those are now unconstitutional.

One of the plaintiffs is a Texas gun owner who values his personal privacy and doesn’t want the federal government to have identifying information about his personally owned firearms. However, the NFA requires him to provide all his identifying information to the federal government in order for him to register and purchase, make, or possess short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, or silencers.

Joining Attorney General Wilson in Texas’s lawsuit are the states of Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

You can read the lawsuit here.