Good day all. Back in 2025, President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill zeroed out the tax on Suppressors, (Silencers), Short Barreled Rifles and other firearms. This, sadly, didn’t include machineguns. However, shortly after the bill was signed into law, court challenges were made over the continued registration requirements for suppressors and SBRs.
The lawsuits basically said that per the Supreme Court, the only reason for the registration requirements to purchase a suppressor or a short barreled rifle/shotgun, was to track the $200 tax requirement. Now that there was no tax, then these items should be removed from the registry and any requirements under the NFA to buy them.
On August 5th, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix agreed and ruled that these items were no longer covered under the NFA and that people could just go in and buy them as normal firearms. (We can argue the point regarding the metal tubes that are suppressors as being firearms another day), This meant that all a person needed to do was fill out a form 4473, go through the standard background check, and then walk out the door with the suppressor or SBR.
There was a temporary injunction put in place to allow the DoJ to appeal the decision. The DoJ never did and when it expired, Congressional Candidate Brandon Herrera became the first person to buy a suppressor, (In this case two of them), without a tax stamp or getting fingerprinted.
However, there was a great deal of confusion and most gun stores held back until they received guidance from the DoJ/ATF. Late Friday, that guidance arrived. Here are some of the details from CBS News:
The Justice Department said on Friday it will no longer enforce certain provisions of a 1934 law that was passed by Congress to regulate the types of firearms often used by mobsters, after a federal judge declared large parts of the law were unconstitutional.
The new guidelines released by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were issued to current and future gun owners. The Justice Department determined last month it would not appeal the judge’s ruling.
Under the new guidelines, the federal government will no longer require individuals to apply and receive regulatory approval before making or transferring short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, suppressors and other various types of concealable firearms.
The remainder of the CBS story, while providing some information, shows that Bari Weiss and the Ellisons have not fully cleaned out the leftist mindset. You can tell that the writer isn’t happy with this new guidance. She also “Buries the lede,” in this case why the old regulations were declared unconstitutional. This was the original supreme court ruling that the restrictions were allowed because the NFA was a tax bill, not a firearm registration and ban bill. That original decision also said that if it wasn’t for the tax, the NFA would be found to be unconstitutional.
Now this isn’t a total victory. In states where suppressors and SBRs are banned or restricted, they still are. The ATF also said that you should file a form 20. From what I can find, there is both a hard copy of this form, and a version that can be filed online. Since it isn’t applicable to me, I haven’t set up an account to access these Eforms.
Also, the ATF recommends reviewing state laws when you are traveling. While federal law does have provisions for traveling across state lines with firearms, (They need to be unloaded and locked up in a case), many states will still arrest people who are just traveling through and throw them in prison. For a full review of this, I recommend watching the video posted by Washington Gun Law. He breaks it all down for you. (It seems that YouToilet has age restricted this. I have no idea why other than sour grapes on YouTube’s part)
Now there is the problem of what happens when the Democrats and their desire to end the 2nd Amendment and confiscate all privately held firearms returns to office. Without question, they will reverse all aspects of this as quickly and expansively as possible. This is why we need formal legislation removing suppressors, SBRs and all other weapons from the NFA entirely.
We also need to shut down the communist Democrat controlled states that already ignore the 2nd Amendment. The eventual goal will be the end of the NFA and the follow on 1968 gun control act. We must not rest on our laurels. Still, this is an excellent start and one I have been waiting for. I just wish I was working so I could afford these items of freedom.
Thatisall
~The Angry Webmaster~
