Dear MSSA Friends,
We are all waiting and hoping to see if the Senate approves the Hearing Protection Act (HPA) as a part of the “one big beautiful” budget bill. If it does and President Trump signs it (expected), then that will remove suppressors from the National Firearms Act (NFA). If that removal happens, then suppressors will be treated legally as firearms – yes, a 4473 to purchase, but no more $200 tax and no registration process.
However, there is a hitch with Montana law and similar laws in a bunch of other states. Montana has a state law at 45-8-337, M.C.A., that makes it a felony to possess a suppressor that is not registered with the feds. If suppressors are removed from the NFA, it will no longer be possible to comply with this Montana law by registering suppressors with the feds. What are we to do?
Of course, MSSA will have a bill before the 2027 Montana Legislature to repeal this archaic state law.
For an interim fix, I have discussed this with pro-gun Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen. If the HPA should pass Congress and be signed into law, AG Knudsen says he will issue an advisory to Montana prosecutors saying that the Montana law is no longer enforceable, probably because Montanans obtaining suppressors post-HPA simply cannot comply with this old state law.
For your historical information, MSSA spent a decade or so getting old, Prohibition-era suppressor laws off the Montana law books. When we began this effort, it was a state felony to possess a suppressor, federally-registered or not. In step one of our quest to legalize suppressors we got a bill passed making it legal to have registered suppressors for all lawful purposes except for hunting.
DFWP fought us on suppressors for hunting, claiming that if suppressors were legalized for hunting then poachers using suppressors would wipe out all game animals in Montana and game wardens would be unable to catch or stop them.
In a subsequent legislative session, we prevailed over DFWP objections and got another bill passed removing the prohibition on suppressors for hunting.
As a bone to DFWP and law enforcement, we left on the books the old law making it a felony to possess an unregistered suppressor. Frankly, we just didn’t foresee suppressors getting removed from the NFA, so this didn’t seem like a big deal.
How times change.
One critical issue in the Senate is whether or not the HPA fits within the “Byrd Rule.” That is a Senate rule instituted by former Senator Robert Byrd (D. West Virginia) exempting from the 60-vote filibuster any measure for budget or taxes.
GOA argues, persuasively I think, that the NFA was enacted primarily as a tax measure, so suppressor removal fits within the Byrd Rule and can be passed by the Senate with a simple majority, thereby avoiding the (unobtainable for suppressors) 60-vote threshold that would be needed without the benefit of the Byrd Rule.
Others (anti-gunners) argue that the HPA does not fit the Byrd Rule, and therefore the HPA cannot be included in the Senate’s version of the “one big beautiful” budget reconcilliation bill that the House already passed.
It is unknown at this point which of these arguments will prevail.
The elephant in the room with this budget bill is that some staunch conservative Republican Senators don’t like it because it does little to reduce the federal budget deficit and the killer national debt that could sink our Nation. If a few Republican Senators vote against the bill for this reason, it won’t pass.
Fingers crossed that the HPA passes and suppressors get removed from the NFA.
Best wishes,
Gary Marbut, President
Montana Shooting Sports Association
Author, Gun Laws of Montana