The firearms industry walked into mid-September with three fights running at once: a state-tax preemption bill and a liability-shield bill sharing one House Judiciary markup agenda, a federal NFA ruling the Justice Department is reported to be walking away from, and an agency that still has not told dealers what to do at the counter. Here is what actually moved this week.
On September 16 the House Judiciary Committee took up H.R. 2442, the Freedom from Unfair Gun Taxes Act, and H.R. 9298, the Stopping Harmful and Outrageous Torts Act, alongside five unrelated measures. H.R. 2442 comes from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA-48), introduced in March 2025 with 31 cosponsors. It bars a state, or any political subdivision, from levying or collecting an excise tax on the sale of a firearm, ammunition, or any part or component of either by a manufacturer or dealer in interstate commerce. The amendment circulated at markup retitles it the Freedom from Unfair Gun Taxes Act of 2026 and preserves the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act by rule of construction. (bill status, markup amendment)
That carve-out matters because California set the national model with an 11 percent retail excise tax on firearms, precursor parts, and ammunition, and Colorado followed with its own. Second Amendment Foundation researcher Kostas Moros argued this week that special taxes on arms fail the historical test in Bruen — and that the argument reaches Pittman-Robertson, the 1937 federal excise tax that funds wildlife conservation and range grants. That is a live internal argument in the rights world rather than a settled position, and it is why the preservation clause exists. (source)
H.R. 9298 comes from Rep. Derek Schmidt (R-KS-2) with roughly 50 cosponsors. Its substitute amendment would make qualified civil liability actions pending at enactment immediately dismissible, widen qualified product to cover magazines, optics, and other accessories, define proximate cause as direct injury by the allegedly unlawful conduct, create a removal route pulling state cases into federal court on a colorable immunity claim, and expressly preempt state and local laws that impose liability on manufacturers, sellers, and trade associations. (bill status, substitute amendment)
The Senate companion, the SHOT Act, was introduced in June by Sens. John Cornyn and Chuck Grassley with NSSF backing. Gun Owners of America spent the days before markup pressing for amendments so the shield reaches nonprofit industry entities, not only for-profit businesses and trade associations. (Senate companion)
CBS News reported September 17 that the president directed the Justice Department not to appeal the August 5 ruling in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF, which held that NFA registration and approval requirements for suppressors, short-barreled rifles, and short-barreled shotguns exceed Congress enumerated powers now that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act zeroed those taxes. NSSF puts the outside date to appeal or seek a stay at October 5. Filing an appeal would not by itself undo the injunction, and the government already passed on the emergency-stay route. (source)
Implementation guidance has still not arrived. ATF Director Robert Cekada said in late August the agency is following the order and drafting formal guidance. The one paper dealers do have is the Open Letter to All Federal Firearms Licensees on Silencers dated August 28, which lets a complete silencer already in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record be repaired or converted to another caliber without counting as a new making — provided the serialized frame or receiver survives, markings stay put, and a qualified manufacturer does the work. Loose components remain regulated, and the letter does not reach devices transferred without registration under the injunction. (ATF open letter)
The practical rules have not moved as far as the headlines. The Gun Control Act still applies in full: a suppressor or rifle sold under the injunction still runs through a Form 4473 and a NICS check. Short-barreled rifles and shotguns still need an approved Form 4, because 18 U.S.C. 922(b)(4) independently bars a licensee from delivering one to a non-licensee without Attorney General authorization, and the injunction supplied no replacement. Interstate movement under 26 U.S.C. 5861(j) and (k) was never enjoined, and the special occupational tax regime survives. State law is untouched too. Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen was blunt: possession of an unregistered silencer remains a felony there punishable by five to thirty years. (Montana guidance)
The posture that holds up: confirm in writing that any shop doing silencer conversion work holds the manufacturing and SOT qualification the letter requires, keep covered transfers inside the state of purchase unless counsel has reviewed the interstate question, document the serialized component before work starts, and paper every judgment call in the file.
Three dates matter. October 5 is the outside date on the NFA appeal; if it passes with nothing filed, the pressure shifts to ATF guidance and to Congress. The next Judiciary step is a committee report, after which both bills still need the House floor and a far less certain Senate path. And 2027 state sessions are already queuing fixes for the state-law gaps the injunction exposed. For an industry that plans inventory and counter procedures months out, policy risk is now operational risk.