President Trump Brags about HPA in Big Beautiful Bill

President Trump is energetically pushing to pass his One Big Beautiful Bill. On June 3, 2025, the White House published 50 Wins in the One Big Beautiful Bill.  The One Big Beautiful Bill does not do everything which needs to be done. It does not cut spending as much as needs to be done, because the Republican majorities in the House and Senate are extremely thin. There are many excellent policy changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill. The policy decisions become law with the One Big Beautiful Bill, beyond Presidential Executive Orders, so they carry more weight and cannot be reversed by a change in Presidents.

For Second Amendment Supporters the most consequential change in the One Big Beautiful Bill is listed as number 34. From whitehouse.gov:

Here are 50 reasons why President Donald J. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill is the best chance in a generation to pass critical reforms for which Americans voted:

34. It safeguards Second Amendment rights by removing tax and registration requirements for firearm silencers and eliminating silencers from the National Firearms Act.

The removal of silencers from the National Firearms Act appears to be the third legislative rollback of unconstitutional Federal gun control in the last 90 years.   There have been many state legislative victories.There have been significant court victories.  Contrary to the “all or nothing” crowd, this has resulted in significant restoration of some of the rights protected by the Second Amendment.  Incrementalism is working. The protection afforded by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) was passed by Congress. It is important, but the PLCAA did not roll back existing law.

According to this correspondent’s memory, the two previous Federal level legislative victories which rolled back existing law were:

The Firearms Owners Protection Act, passed in 1986.  It was not a complete victory, but it repealed the recordkeeping requirement for retail ammunition sales, allowed ammunition to be sold mail-order, and rolled back some of the worst abuses of the ATF, as allowed by the 1968 Gun Control Act (1968 GCA). It requiring 1968 GCA violations to be intentional in order to be felonies. Unfortunately, it contained a provision putting a cap on sales of machineguns to citizens, although the language of the law in not clear on that result. It was a mixed victory. It made silencer parts into contraband.

Looking at the debate from 1986, the ignorance of the legislators is astounding. It was asserted, without any evidence, that silencers had no legitimate purpose( Halbrook, p. 59).

The next legislative victory came in 2009, under President Barack Obama. Several hunting and Second Amendment groups had lobbied to change National Park Service (NPS) regulations which banned carrying firearms in National Parks. They were effective. Congress told the NPS to change the regulations. The NPS agreed, then reneged on the agreement. The majority in Congress, from both parties, were not happy with this blatant thwarting of their power. They passed the removal of the ban in the form of a law and included the legislation in a credit card “reform” which President Obama wanted very badly. President Obama signed the big bill. Legal carry of firearms (if allowed by the state) in national parks became the law of the land in 2009.

The Hearing Protection Act (HPA) in the One Big Beautiful Bill removes silencers from the National Firearms Act (NFA) and places them under the far less restrictive Gun Control Act of 1968. . The NFA has been the cornerstone of gun control in the United States. The major purpose of the NFA Bill was to gain federal control for licensing and registration of handguns. That failed when the NRA compromised with the Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) administration to remove handguns while not opposing the effective ban of machineguns, short barreled rifles and shotguns, and silencers. The bill which passed was a shadow of what had been proposed. It became the blueprint for the ultimate goal: Registration and licensing of all firearms in the United States.  The NFA never made any sense. It is based on false premises. It never accomplished any of its stated goals. It never reduced crime.

The effect of the inclusion of silencers in the NFA was catastophic.  It ensured millions of Americans would suffer severe hearing loss. 

The major thrust of the NFA was the banned weapons had no utility. Removal of silencers from the NFA recognizes that silencers have utility and that firearms have utility by ordinary people. Removal of the requirement for registration and special taxes acknowledges that registration and taxes are infringements on rights protected by the Second Amendment. Under the 1968 GCA, federal registration is not allowed. Private sales are legal in the vast majority of states.

If the HPA passes, the next, obvious removal will be short barreled rifles and short barreled shotguns. There is no rational reason to have them in the NFA when the Supreme Court has firmly established handguns as arms protected by the Second Amendment.

The HPA keeps Silencers/suppressors under the purview of GCA 1968 so as to comply with the requirement of a number of states that silencers be legal under federal law. The removal of registration requirements and the tax means silencers will become ubiquitous. They will become as common as firearms are.  In practice, this means they will become as untraceable and unregistered as firearms are, over time.

Silencer deregulation will act to swell the ranks of gun owners and Second Amendment supporters. Shooting firearms is far more pleasant and safe with silencers/suppressors.

Do not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. The HPA is not perfect, but it is good. 

Update:  

A Senate committee has included the Short Act to remove short barreled shotguns and rifles from the National Firearms Act in the big beautiful bill. 

©2025 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch 

Source: http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2025/06/president-trump-brags-about-hpa-in-big.html