U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde is leading seven other Republican members of Georgia’s congressional delegation in asking Attorney General Chris Carr to clarify how Georgia gun law should be applied following a recent federal court ruling involving the National Firearms Act. Clyde and the other lawmakers sent Carr a letter Wednesday asking him to issue a legal opinion addressing what they say is now a conflict between Georgia law and federal requirements. The issue stems from an August 5 ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF, consolidated with Jensen v. ATF. The court ruled that National Firearms Act registration requirements for suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns and certain other weapons could no longer be constitutionally supported by Congress’s taxing power after Congress reduced the applicable NFA taxes to zero. However, the federal ruling does not simply eliminate the requirements for every gun owner nationwide. Its injunction applies to the plaintiffs covered by the lawsuit, including members of plaintiff organizations, and independent state restrictions can still apply. That is where Clyde and the Georgia lawmakers say a problem arises. Georgia law generally prohibits possession of certain weapons, including short-barreled rifles and shotguns, machine guns and silencers. One exemption applies to people authorized to possess them because they have registered them in accordance with the…
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