Heller, McDonald, Bruen, and the Unconstitutional Tax Burden of the NFA

Authors

Robert T. Lass

Abstract

During the gangland-era crime sprees of the 1920s and 1930s, Congress enacted the National Firearms Act in an attempt to make it more difficult to acquire the types of weapons favored by gangsters by imposing an extreme tax on these weapons. The draconian rules governing the purchase of these firearms are still in place today, but, with the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, the National Firearms Act may soon fall to challenges presented by Second Amendment activists. In Bruen, the Court ruled that, when the plain text of the Second Amendment protects a citizen’s conduct, if the government wants to burden that conduct, it must first show historical precedent for the gun control measure in both purpose and method. This article argues that the NFA will likely not survive a challenge if it is put to the test under the Bruen standard of review. However, minor changes to its enforcement may be enough to rehabilitate the National Firearms Act should it be found to be unconstitutional.

First Page

94

Recommended Citation

Robert T. Lass, Heller, McDonald, Bruen, and the Unconstitutional Tax Burden of the NFA, 7 Bus. Entrepreneurship & Tax L. Rev. 94 (2024).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/betr/vol7/iss1/7