Congress exempts non-lethal weapons from federal gun taxes and NFA tracking

What it does

This bill exempts less-than-lethal projectile devices (like bean-bag guns, rubber-bullet launchers, and similar non-lethal weapons) from federal excise taxes on firearms and ammunition, and removes them from the definition of firearms under the National Firearms Act. The Secretary of the Treasury must classify devices within 90 days of a manufacturer's request and publish annual lists of approved devices.

Why we flagged it

The bill's operative mechanism is a dual exemption: removal of excise tax on a newly defined class of weapons and removal of those weapons from NFA regulation. The primary beneficiaries are manufacturers and sellers of less-than-lethal devices, not the general public.

What the text implies

• The 500 feet-per-second velocity threshold is a technical boundary that may not align with actual lethality risk; devices just below this threshold could still cause serious injury, yet the bill exempts them from NFA tracking and registration.
• The Secretary's 90-day classification window creates a narrow window for manufacturers to request determinations, potentially allowing devices to enter the market before full vetting if requests are submitted strategically.
• Annual list updates mean devices can move on and off the NFA-exempt list, creating regulatory uncertainty and potential for manufacturers to game the classification process by redesigning devices to meet exemption criteria.
• Removal from NFA definition eliminates the requirement for serial numbers, registration, and transfer tracking on these devices, reducing law enforcement's ability to trace weapons used in crimes.
• The bill does not address how state and local firearms laws interact with the federal exemption, potentially creating conflicts where a device is federally exempt but state-regulated.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Citizens who manufacture, sell, or purchase less-than-lethal weapons gain tax relief and reduced regulatory burden, lowering costs for these products. However, the bill creates a new category of weapons exempt from federal oversight that previously applied to all firearms, potentially reducing transparency and tracking of devices that can still cause serious injury, and the definition's technical thresholds (500 fps, pistol-grip ammunition feeds) may be difficult to enforce or may inadvertently

Who stands to gain

• manufacturers of less-than-lethal projectile devices
• importers and distributors of non-lethal weapons
• retailers selling bean-bag guns, rubber-bullet launchers, and similar devices

Named in the bill

Internal Revenue Code of 1986, Section 4181 (firearms excise tax), Section 4182 (ammunition excise tax), Section 5845(a) (National Firearms Act definition), Secretary of the Treasury, Committee on Ways and Means, Committee on Finance

Where it stands

5 cosponsors: 5 Republicans.

• Dec 16, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
• Dec 16, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Finance · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text: CR S8782)”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

2 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $110,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 4 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.

John Barrasso, the sponsor, reported $408,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle. $5,000 of that came from 1 PAC tied to these lobbying clients.

• Axon Enterprise, Inc. — $60,000 on 1 filing
• Axon Enterprise, Inc — $50,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.