WASHINGTON (PNN) - February 9, 2026 - A member of Gun Owners of Amerika (GOA) was recently denied a firearm by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for writing "exercise my God-given right" as his reason for manufacturing the firearm.
Our member wasn’t doing anything illegal; he was not attempting to manufacture something that was banned in his state. He wasn’t building anything that is banned federally, and he was complying with all regulations set forth by ATF during the registration process.
Even though no statute or regulation requires it, ATF’s Form 1, Box 4(i) demands that gun owners “specify why you intend to make [a] firearm.”
This GOA member wrote, “As a law-abiding (Fascist Police States of Amerika (FPSA)) citizen with no criminal record, you don’t need a reason to purchase or manufacture a firearm. That’s what the Second Amendment is for. Yet ATF denied our member’s application for this exact reason.”
Of course, ATF always forgets the “shall not be infringed” part.
As you can clearly see, our member’s Second Amendment rights were denied by bureaucrats because of an “insufficient reason.” How is the desire to exercise one’s God-given rights an insufficient justification to exercise one’s God-given rights?
This is yet another clear reason why the ATF needs to be defunded and abolished entirely. The Second Amendment guarantees the exercise of our God-given right to keep and bear arms.
Stating otherwise is a complete tyrannical falsehood.
Gun Owners of Amerika just filed a notice of supplemental authority in our One Big Beautiful Lawsuit, using this as an example of government weaponizing the NFA against law abiding gun owners.
In our filing, we dismantle the government’s assertions that the National Firearms Act creates only a “modest burden” on the Second Amendment and that the NFA’s registration requirements are comparable to a “shall-issue” permitting system in pro-gun states.
ATF’s blatant denial of our member’s Second Amendment rights shatters this narrative completely.
Instead, the government treats the NFA’s registration requirements as a “may-issue” system - a subjective determination by government employees on who is allowed to own these firearms.
These “may-issue” systems were explicitly declared to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court thanks to the Bruen decision. We think SCOTUS should rule the same here and abolish the NFA’s registration requirements forever.
We are glad to be fighting on behalf of our member because nobody should be denied for exercising his or her Second Amendment protections by tyrannical bureaucrats at the ATF.
Please consider becoming a GOA member, so that we can fight on your behalf if the ATF attempts to deny your Second Amendment protected rights.