Sponsors (16)
The bill expands rights, privacy, and lower compliance costs for owners and reduces administrative burdens, at the trade-off of limiting state control and records that help law enforcement—potentially raising public-safety risks and shifting costs to governments and taxpayers.
Owners and lawful users of short-barreled shotguns (hunters, sport shooters, private owners) face clearer federal definitions and fewer federal prohibitions/paperwork for these firearms.
Federal registry records for shotguns removed from NFA classification will be deleted, reducing federal recordkeeping and lowering privacy/retention risks for registered owners.
States and localities are barred from imposing new taxes, fees, or duplicate registration requirements on interstate transfers of these shotguns, standardizing rules across states and reducing costs and compliance burdens for buyers and sellers.
Public safety could be worsened because narrower definitions and declassification may increase availability of short-barreled shotguns and reduce legal barriers that previously limited access.
Law enforcement will lose centralized records and tracking tools (and states are limited from creating their own), hindering traceability, investigations, and cross-jurisdictional criminal inquiries.
State and local governments lose regulatory control and potential revenue (fees/taxes) and cannot tailor firearm rules to local safety needs.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Narrows federal shotgun definitions, removes "short‑barreled shotgun" from two §922 listings, preempts certain state taxes/registration, recognizes federal NFA compliance for states, and mandates destruction of certain NFA records.
Official title: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to remove short-barreled shotguns from the definition of firearms for purposes of the National Firearms Act, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 28, 2025 by Sheri Biggs · Last progress April 28, 2025
Changes federal law to narrow how certain shotguns are defined and regulated, removes the specific label “short‑barreled shotgun” from two federal criminal statute lists, preempts some state and local taxes and registration/marking requirements on these shotguns, recognizes federal NFA compliance as satisfying state/local rules, and requires the Attorney General to destroy existing federal registration/transfer records for certain shotguns covered by the change. The definition change becomes effective for calendar quarters beginning more than 90 days after enactment; other provisions operate on enactment unless otherwise specified.