In an effort led by U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-GA, members of the Georgia Republican delegation are urging Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr to issue a legal opinion clarifying a discrepancy in Georgia law that “could prevent law-abiding Georgians from fully exercising their recently restored Second Amendment rights” following the landmark ruling in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF (consolidated with Jensen v. ATF).
On August 5th, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas delivered a monumental win to plaintiffs in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF. According to Clyde, the landmark ruling struck down NFA registration requirements for suppressors, short-barreled rifles (SBRs), short-barreled shotguns (SBSs), and any other weapons (AOWs), rightly ruling that these requirements exceed Congress’s constitutional authority after Congress eliminated the NFA’s transfer and making taxes on those arms.
Following this court decision, Congressman Clyde led nearly 50 of his House and Senate Republican colleagues in sending a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche urging the DOJ to decline any appeal of the ruling, as well as to apply and set it nationwide through official rulemaking.
In a letter sent Wednesday, lawmakers highlight Carr’s decision to have the State of Georgia join as a plaintiff in the case that helped deliver the most significant Second Amendment restoration in more than a century.
“We congratulate you on your win in having the State of Georgia join as a plaintiff in the Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF case, in which the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled Aug. 5 that the National Firearms Act (NFA) registration and transfer requirements are unconstitutional because it cannot survive the elimination of the underlying taxes. Congressional efforts to eliminate those taxes, combined with this court ruling, reflect the greatest restoration of Georgians’ Second Amendment rights in over 100 years,” the letter states.
However, Clyde and his colleagues go on to explain that Georgia’s current criminal code prevents Georgians from freely and fully exercising their recently restored Second Amendment liberties.
They write: “Georgia’s criminal code generally prohibits possession of short-barreled shotguns, short-barreled rifles, machine guns, and silencers. That prohibition does not apply, however, to a person ‘who is authorized to possess the same because he has registered the sawed-off shotgun, sawed-off rifle, machine gun, dangerous weapon, or silencer in accordance with the dictates of the National Firearms Act.’ Now that NFA registration is no longer required and, under the court’s ruling, may no longer lawfully be demanded of Georgians covered by the injunction, this provision no longer maps cleanly onto federal law. Read literally, it could be misunderstood to condition Georgia’s exemption on an act of federal registration that a covered person is no longer required, or even permitted, to complete. This ambiguity has deterred Georgians, who are in full compliance with all applicable federal law, from fully exercising their Second Amendment rights, out of a well-founded fear that doing so could place them in violation of Georgia’s criminal code.”
Therefore, they are urging Carr to issue clear guidance on the matter to ensure Georgians can fully enjoy their Second Amendment freedoms as the Founders intended.
Cosigners include Republican Representatives Rick Allen, Buddy Carter, Mike Collins, Clay Fuller, Brian Jack, Barry Loudermilk and Rich McCormick.
