[Federalist] When the clock struck midnight on August 12, Second Amendment activists everywhere celebrated because for the first time in nearly a century, the burdensome regulations and registry required for firearm-muzzling suppressors could be on the chopping block.
The gun rights victory came in the form of a memorandum opinion and order from a federal district court judge in Texas, who declared on August 5, 2026 that the provisions outlined in the 1934 National Firearms Act "exceed Congress’s Article I enumerated powers and are therefore unconstitutional.
The biggest benefactors of the decision were the large "coalition of individuals, businesses, associations, and states" who sued the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for using the "unconstitutional" NFA stipulations on suppressors to "infringe the Second Amendment right to ’keep and bear Arms.’"
Under the 1968 Gun Control Act, suppressors are classified as firearms and require 4473 paperwork as well as an FBI NICS background check when purchased from federally licensed firearm dealers with Special Occupational Tax status. The NFA additionally compels suppressor buyers to submit fingerprints, a photo, and a Form 4 to the ATF. Before President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, purchasers of the popular hearing protection devices were also required to pay a $200 tax stamp fee.
Form approval could take up to a month and comes on the condition that owners secure their suppressor and keep proof of ownership with the device at all times. Their names and other pertinent information is also added to the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR), a central registry that tracks the millions of NFA devices and their owners.
The latest injunction and a lack of protest in the form of a stay extension from the Department of Justice emboldened plaintiffs like Silencer Shop Foundation and Gun Owners of America to begin transferring suppressors to qualifying parties with no paperwork, registration in a federal gun database, and no waiting period.
"I think this is an incredible moment for the Second Amendment. This is a historic and generational win for gun owners to have a gun law that was in effect for 92 years actually get repealed," Aidan Johnston, federal affairs director of the Gun Owners of America, told The Federalist in a phone interview. "It’s very, very seldom that once we give up a Second Amendment right, that we actually get it back." |