ATF Stops Requiring NFA Approval and Registration for Suppressors, SBRs, SBSs and AOWs Nationwide, Effective October 9, 2026

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

WASHINGTON, DC — The ATF will no longer require anyone to get its approval before making or transferring a short-barreled rifle, short-barreled shotgun, silencer, or “any other weapon,” and it will no longer require those items to be registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record. ATF Director Robert Cekada announced the change in an open letter to all federal firearms licensees and the public dated October 9, 2026, and the policy took effect the same day. It applies to everyone otherwise subject to those requirements, not just the parties in the lawsuit that forced the issue.

The lawsuit is Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF in the Northern District of Texas. According to the letter, a district judge on August 5, 2026 enjoined ATF from enforcing certain NFA provisions as of August 12, 2026. An injunction is a court order telling an agency to stop doing something. The reasoning, as ATF describes it, traces back to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Pub. L. No. 119-21, which cut the NFA making and transfer taxes to $0 for short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, silencers, and “any other weapon[s]” as defined in 26 U.S.C. § 5845(e). With the tax gone, the court held that the NFA’s registration and transfer provisions were no longer an exercise of Congress’s taxing power for those items. The court also held those provisions could not be saved under the interstate commerce power, because Congress did not rely on that power when it passed the NFA in 1934.

The court blocked ATF from administering the approval requirements for making and transferring those items, the registration requirement, and the criminal provisions for making, transferring, receiving, or possessing them unregistered. The letter is careful on one point: the injunction itself applies only to the plaintiffs and to the firearms for which the One Big Beautiful Bill Act eliminated the tax.

That is why the October 9 letter matters more than the August ruling for most readers. ATF says it has been fielding requests for guidance from litigants, Members of Congress, state Attorneys General, the industry, and the public since the injunction, and that forty-seven Members of the House and Senate, led by Rep. Andrew Clyde, asked ATF to apply the ruling nationwide. The Department of Justice answered by exercising what the letter calls enforcement discretion, consistent with a statement from the Attorney General the same day. Enforcement discretion means the Department has decided how it will apply the law, not that the law has been repealed. The NFA is still on the books. The Department has chosen not to require approval or registration for the $0 tax items from anyone.

ATF will keep running the NFA system on a voluntary basis. It will still accept Form 1 applications to make or register these items, Form 3 and Form 4 applications to transfer or register them, and Form 2 reports from manufacturers. I expect some owners will keep filing anyway, and the letter’s fifth limit below explains why that may be the smart move in a lot of states.

The letter lists five things the change does not do.

First, the special occupational tax stays. Anyone engaged in the business of manufacturing, importing, or dealing in NFA firearms, including the $0 tax items, must still pay it. The injunction did not touch it.

Second, machineguns and destructive devices are untouched. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act kept the $200 tax on those, so every NFA provision still applies to them.

Third, the Gun Control Act of 1968 was not enjoined. Under 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(3), the GCA’s definition of “firearm” covers silencers, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and any other weapons. That means prohibited persons still cannot possess them, dealers still run background checks, and all GCA recordkeeping remains in place. A suppressor you buy at a shop still goes through a 4473 and a NICS check. Nothing about this letter changes who may legally own a firearm.

Fourth, the GCA’s own restrictions on transporting and selling short-barreled rifles and shotguns under 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(4) and (b)(4) were not enjoined either. ATF says people transporting short-barreled rifles and shotguns should keep filing Form 20s even if the gun is not in the registry. ATF also says it is working to issue new regulations allowing licensees to transfer short-barreled rifles and shotguns under the GCA, and that in the meantime it will not enforce § 922(b)(4). Note the difference in posture. Transport paperwork is still expected. The dealer transfer provision is simply not being enforced until new rules land.

Fifth, and this is the one that will bite people, nothing here changes state or local law. The letter states that most states have general criminal prohibitions on some or all NFA items, and that those laws often carve out exceptions for items possessed in compliance with, or registered under, federal law. An unregistered suppressor that is now fine with ATF may still be a felony under your state code if your state’s exception is written around federal registration. ATF tells individuals and dealers to consult local law enforcement or get legal advice on whether unregistered NFA items are lawful where they live, and to do the same before transporting one into or through another state. The state-by-state permit information I maintain is a starting point for getting oriented on your state, but on NFA questions specifically, the letter’s advice to get a lawyer involved is the right advice.

The letter adds that it is unclear whether state courts will honor the federal travel safe harbor in 18 U.S.C. § 926A for unregistered NFA items, so ATF says to exercise caution before driving one through a state that prohibits it, even if both ends of the trip are legal. And federal licensees remain barred under 18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(2) from transferring any firearm, silencers included, in violation of state or local law.

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Read together, the practical picture for an owner in a state that already allows these items is straightforward: you can build or buy a suppressor, SBR, SBS, or AOW without waiting on a Form 1 or Form 4, you still go through the dealer’s background check, and you still cannot be a prohibited person. For an owner in a state with an NFA ban that keys off federal registration, voluntary registration may be the only way to stay inside the exception, and a lawyer should make that call. ATF says a Frequently Asked Questions page on its website will accompany the letter with more detail, and questions go to the Firearms Industry Programs Branch at [email protected].

This is an enforcement policy, not a statute, and the underlying case is still being litigated. I will continue tracking the Silencer Shop Foundation case, ATF’s promised short-barreled rifle and shotgun regulations, and the state-level fallout.