NRA Warns Court: Gun Registration Is a Road to Confiscation

The National Rifle Association just dropped a major warning shot in the Fifth Circuit. Alongside the American Suppressor Association and Independence Institute, the NRA filed an amicus brief in United States v. Peterson.

Their message? Gun registration schemes are dangerous, unconstitutional, and historically a fast track to confiscation.

The case centers on suppressor registration, but the bigger fight is about where the government’s power ends. A three-judge panel upheld registration rules while assuming suppressors are “arms” protected by the Second Amendment.

The NRA says that logic opens the door for the government to demand registration of every firearm without ever meeting the Supreme Court’s text-and-history test.

That test, set out in District of Columbia v. Heller and hammered home in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, is clear: if the Second Amendment’s text covers the conduct, the government must prove the restriction matches this nation’s historical firearm tradition.

There’s no carve-out for “presumptively lawful” laws like licensing. Every regulation has to clear the same constitutional bar.

The NRA brief calls out the panel for blurring the line between licensing and registration. Licensing, the brief notes, deals with ensuring owners know how to safely handle firearms. Registration, by contrast, creates lists of who owns what—lists that history shows are ripe for abuse.

And the history lesson isn’t subtle:

• The brief points to King Charles II’s 1662 registration orders in England, which enabled the Crown to disarm political opponents.
• It highlights the Weimar Republic’s registration laws that became a Nazi tool for seizing Jewish weapons before Kristallnacht.
• It cites France in 1935, where registration records made it easy for German occupiers to disarm civilians.
• And it even looks closer to home, reminding the court how New York City used its registration rolls to confiscate so-called “assault weapons” in the 1990s.

Congress itself has long recognized the danger. In 1941, lawmakers banned federal firearms registration in response to totalitarian abuses overseas.

The Firearms Owners’ Protection Act of 1986 doubled down, explicitly prohibiting a national registry. Even Justice Kavanaugh, back when he was on the D.C. Circuit, noted that registration has never been a longstanding American tradition.

The NRA brief doesn’t mince words: registration schemes aren’t about safety, they’re about control. If courts shield them from constitutional scrutiny, the Second Amendment’s “unqualified command” becomes meaningless.

The bottom line?

The NRA wants the full Fifth Circuit to rehear the case and apply the Supreme Court’s test the right way. Because if history has taught gun owners anything, it’s that registration lists don’t end with safety—they end with confiscation.