Missouri sues ATF, DOJ over firearm restrictions 

The Missouri attorney general has filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for unlawfully restricting gun ownership.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway is arguing the requirement for gun owners to register suppressors and short-barreled rifles and shotguns under the National Firearms Act (NFA) is a violation of citizens’ Second Amendment rights.

“If an item qualifies as an ‘arm,’ the Second Amendment protects it, and the government bears the burden of proving, at a minimum, that there is a historical tradition of regulating arms to support the challenged regulatory scheme,” the federal complaint reads.

President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act got rid of the $200 manufacture and transfer taxes on almost all NFA-regulated guns on July 4, 2025. Because the firearms in question – suppressors and short-barreled rifles – are no longer taxed as they were when the NFA was enacted in 1934, Hanaway argues the extensive registration requirements are no longer constitutional.

“Law and order and the Second Amendment go hand in hand,” Hanaway wrote in a press release. “A government that respects the Constitution has empowered, law‑abiding citizens who can protect themselves and their families.

“It does not paper over rights with red tape.”

Current federal law requires extensive personal information such as name, address, physical appearance, fingerprints and more for a short-barreled rifle or shotgun to be legally purchased and registered, the federal complaint states. Gun owners who don’t go through the registration process could be arrested, prosecuted or face jail time for felony violations. 

“The ATF’s heavy-handed restrictions on suppressors threaten lawful firearm use and undermine the rights protected by the Second Amendment,” Hanaway said.

In the lawsuit, Hanaway and plaintiff Dave Marshak, a Missouri gun owner and Second Amendment supporter, are seeking an order and judgment declaring the registration regulations under the NFA on untaxed firearms such as suppressors and short-barreled rifles are unconstitutional.

“Because there is no tradition of requiring the registration and attendant regulation of protected arms, the NFA’s regulatory scheme is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment with respect to suppressors and short-barreled rifles,” the lawsuit argues.

The lawsuit names ATF, the Department of Justice, ATF Director Robert Cekada and U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche as defendants.