In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News during SHOT Show 2026, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach (R) explained why the registration of short barreled rifles (SBRs) and suppressors must end.
He explained that in a 1937 Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of the National Firearms Act (NFA), the Court said, “The only way the NFA is constitutional is if it is a taxation power exercise.”
Kobach pointed out that the registration of SBRs and suppressors has no basis now that the NFA’s taxation on said devices has been removed. “President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill contained a small provision, getting rid of the $200 tax on SBRs and suppressors,” he said. “The reason that was in there is because conservatives in the Congress, friends of firearms and gun owners in the Congress, said, ‘We’re going to get rid of the tax so there is no longer any basis for registering these SBRs and suppressors and this whole registration scheme.'”
He continued, “Congress did that, and what should have happened is that the Justice Department declared registration done, all this registration, all this ‘Mother May I’ with the federal government is gone. But strangely, it hasn’t gone away, and the ATF and DOJ have continued to defend it as a constitutional exercise of who knows what power now.”
He then talked about a lawsuit whereby Kansas, along with a number of other states, seeks to end the registration.
“This is actually one of the very few cases where we are litigating against the Trump administration right now. It’s in two different district courts,” Kobach said. “The bottom line is, there is no leg for the registration of SBRs and suppressors to stand on. It’s unconstitutional. I think we’re going to get that ruling, but it would have been easier if they had just said, ‘It’s gone; that’s why Congress got rid of the tax — it’s over.'”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.