GOP tax bill would ease regulations on gun silencers and some rifles and shotguns

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 12:02 AM EDT, June 23, 2025


WASHINGTON (AP) — The massive tax and spending cuts package that President Donald Trump wants on his desk by July 4 would loosen regulations on gun silencers and certain types of rifles and shotguns, advancing a longtime priority of the gun industry as Republican leaders in the House and Senate try to win enough votes to pass the bill.

The guns provision was first requested in the House by Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde, a Republican gun store owner who had initially opposed the larger tax package. The House bill would remove silencers — called “suppressors” by the gun industry — from a 1930s law that regulates firearms that are considered the most dangerous, eliminating a $200 tax while removing a layer of background checks.

The Senate kept the provision on silencers in its version of the bill and expanded upon it, adding short-barreled, or sawed-off, rifles and shotguns. Republicans who have long supported the changes, along with the gun industry, say the tax infringes on Second Amendment rights. They say silencers are mostly used by hunters and target shooters for sport.

“Burdensome regulations and unconstitutional taxes shouldn’t stand in the way of protecting American gun owners’ hearing,” said Clyde, who owns two gun stores in Georgia and often wears a pin shaped like an assault rifle on his suit lapel.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/tax-bill-big-beautiful-trump-senate-guns-2dc07c2e0320d81448b5d45f15088028

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This is an issue that would clearly violate the Byrd Rule and Democrats plan on challenging this with the Parliamentarian. So like other ineligible "policy" items that the House had packed in their version, hopefully this gets stripped from the Senate version.