On October 9, 2026, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) issued guidance (via an Open Letter with a fact sheet) stating that, as a matter of enforcement discretion, the ATF will no longer enforce key National Firearms Act (NFA) requirements for short-barreled rifles (SBRs), short-barreled shotguns (SBSs), suppressors (silencers), and certain “any other weapons” (AOWs—concealable firearms other than pistols and revolvers). This guidance applies nationwide to everyone (not just the plaintiffs in the lawsuit decided on August 5).
The nearly two-month wait for guidance from the ATF for those who are purchasing or wish to purchase suppressors for their firearms felt long, but it was relatively fast for a federal agency dealing with a decision this legally complex.
When this was noted to ATF Director Robert Cekada in this episode of the NRA’s The Armed Citizen Podcast, Cekada said, “You [are] very kind, and I will tell you that I created an account on the X platform shortly before we started developing the guidelines. The people there were certainly dissatisfied with the speed of response, and we understood their frustration. They just wanted to know the way forward, didn’t they? They wanted to understand what they could do and what they could not do. They were afraid of falling into some kind of government trap. So, as much as we wanted to move quickly, I was reading a lot of comments online, and I was very concerned about the existence of what we call ‘prison lawyers’ online. We have seen many people giving directions to the American public saying, ‘Hey, don’t worry about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. This is something you can do in every state in the country. The punitive order has a national scope.’ People started contacting me, and frankly, they were worried about their jobs, the federal gun licensing campaign, and Americans were worried about: ‘Will I get into trouble if I do what these people are telling me?’ So, I said to them, ‘Listen, please, be patient with us for a little while.’ The White House, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the Department of Justice have been working together to issue a series of guidelines and frequently asked questions to ensure you are on the best path forward and to provide a solid foundation so you don’t get into trouble.”
As a little background, after lobbying from the NRA and others, Congress zeroed out the $200 tax on these items in the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” A federal district court in the Northern District of Texas (Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF was consolidated with related cases like Jensen v. ATF) ruled on August 5, 2026, that the NFA’s registration, prior-approval, and related schemes for these categories could no longer be justified under Congress’ taxing power once the tax was eliminated.
It was then up to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)—the ATF is a subsidiary of the DOJ—to either appeal or not to challenge the ruling. The DOJ opted to let the injunction stand. A lot of uncertainty then prevailed as citizens, and the gun stores they use, were not certain what they could legally do.
This ATF guidance has helped to answer these questions, but many uncertainties still exist, as a new administration or Congress could choose to reinstate the NFA tax on these items or to do many other things that can place owners of these items in legal jeopardy.
ATF Director Cekada addressed these concerns in The Armed Citizen Podcast.
“I’ve heard threats of a $4,000 [NFA] tax, but it doesn’t even have to be that,” said Cekada, “it could be a $1 tax that’s back on these firearms that overturns the injunction. And [then] people who purchased firearms, either under the injunction or under the protections that ATF put in with a non-enforcement policy, those folks would [then] be in violation of the NFA.”
Director Cekada then explained remedies for allowing gun owners with those items to stay on the right side of the law.
The director also explained how a person can have a suppressor or other item removed from the NFA database, but he cautioned that once an item is removed, the ATF does not currently have a legal mechanism for putting it back into the database.
Director Cekada also explained in this interview how a gun owner can travel with a suppressor to other states on a hunting trip or go to a competition. State laws, of course, must be understood and adhered to, but there are also forms that must be submitted. Some of these rules and procedures are still being established.
Armed citizens who choose to purchase and use suppressors—as they are important hearing-protection devices—must still navigate a complex patchwork of laws, especially if they want to travel with these items.
Director Cekada, however, explained that the Trump administration is doing all they can to remove or reduce the legal hurdles in this process and he is optimistic that the pro-Second Amendment changes they are making would be difficult to take away.
“You have an ATF director who put out … a document that folks could point to in the future and say, ‘Hey, this is not something I decided to do on my own. This is an ATF director that put out for the American people guidance that was supported by the attorney general of this Department of Justice.’ I don’t think it is as clean as people think that someone can take an eraser and say that the guidance that we provided had no effect,” said Cekada
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