Today, the National Rifle Association, American Suppressor Association, and Independence Institute filed an amicus brief urging the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to grant rehearing en banc in a challenge to the National Firearms Act’s registration requirement for suppressors.
George Peterson was indicted for possessing an unregistered suppressor under 26 U.S.C. §§ 5841, 5861(d), and 5871, and alleges that the NFA’s prohibition on unregistered suppressors violates the Second Amendment.
On August 27, 2025, a 3-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit upheld the prohibition. The court reasoned that registration requirements are the equivalent of licensing schemes, and because the Supreme Court has indicated that shall-issue carry licensing schemes can be constitutional, registration requirements for individual arms are also constitutional. The court declined to apply the test for Second Amendment challenges set forth in the NRA’s landmark Supreme Court victory, NYSRPA v. Bruen.
Our brief urges the Fifth Circuit to rehear the case en banc, because the panel decision contradicts Supreme Court case law and sets a troubling precedent. The brief warns that by upholding the registration requirement for suppressors while assuming they are protected arms, the decision implies that the government may require the registration of all arms—and without needing to satisfy the Supreme Court’s test for Second Amendment challenges. The brief then provides various examples throughout history—including from England, Germany, France, Australia, and New York City—to prove that registration often leads to confiscation, and confiscation often leads to tyranny. A regulation with such serious constitutional implications, our brief concludes, must be subject to the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment test.
The brief was filed in United States v. Peterson.
Please stay tuned to www.nraila.org for future updates on NRA-ILA’s ongoing efforts to defend your constitutional rights, and please visit www.nraila.org/litigation to keep up to date on NRA-ILA’s ongoing litigation efforts.
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