Suppressors Without a Form 4? What the New NFA Court Ruling Actually Means

For most of my life, the rules seemed pretty simple. Want a suppressor? Ask the ATF for permission. Want to build a short-barreled rifle? Ask the ATF for permission. Pay the tax, submit the paperwork, register the firearm, and wait. Now, for certain Americans covered by a federal court injunction, that system has been turned upside down. Suppressors are already being transferred over the counter without a Form 4 or NFA registration. The registration requirements for short-barreled rifles have also been enjoined for the plaintiffs and covered members, opening an entirely different conversation about building an SBR at home without the traditional Form 1 process.

Before we go any further, this is not legal advice.

This situation is changing quickly. Federal law is only part of the equation; state laws still matter, and there are important differences between suppressors, personally made SBRs, and dealer-transferred SBRs. Talk to an attorney familiar with firearms law in your state before doing anything that previously required NFA registration. Now let's talk about how we got here.

How We Ended Up With the NFA

The National Firearms Act goes back to 1934. The original law regulated machine guns, silencers, certain concealable firearms, and rifles and shotguns with barrels shorter than 18 inches. It didn't simply prohibit them. Instead, Congress used its taxing authority and imposed what was then an enormous $200 tax on the making or transfer of most NFA firearms. Two hundred dollars today is annoying. Two hundred dollars in 1934 was intentionally prohibitive.

The rifle barrel threshold was eventually reduced from 18 inches to the 16-inch standard we know today, while shotguns remained at 18 inches. For nearly a century, the basic concept remained. Want to make an NFA firearm yourself? Form 1. Want to purchase and transfer one? Form 4. Pay the tax, receive approval, and enter the firearm into the federal NFA registry. That system survived largely because the Supreme Court had previously treated the NFA as an exercise of Congress's taxing power. Then Congress did something very important: it removed the tax.

The $0 Tax Created a Very Big Question

In 2025, Congress passed legislation reducing the NFA making and transfer taxes on suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and AOWs to zero dollars, effective January 1, 2026. The registration system remained. So beginning January 1, we entered into a strange situation. You still had to fill out the forms. You still had to register the firearm. You still had to wait for approval. But you were doing all of this to facilitate collection of a tax that now collected exactly zero dollars. That's where the lawsuit comes in. On July 4, 2025, the same day the legislation was signed, a coalition filed what became Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF.

The plaintiffs included Silencer Shop Foundation, Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners Foundation, Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition, B&T USA, Palmetto State Armory, SilencerCo, individual gun owners, and eventually a coalition of 15 states. A related case, Jensen v. ATF, was later consolidated into it. Their argument was relatively simple. If Congress created these regulations under its power to collect a tax, and that tax no longer produces any revenue, what constitutional authority remains for the registration system? On August 5, 2026, Judge James Wesley Hendrix agreed.

What Judge Hendrix Actually Ruled

This point is important because there is already a lot of bad information floating around. The court did not decide that the Second Amendment independently invalidated the NFA. The plaintiffs made that argument, but Judge Hendrix didn't need to reach it. Instead, he ruled that once Congress eliminated the making and transfer taxes on these firearms, the NFA regulations associated with collecting those taxes could no longer be justified under Congress's taxing power. The government argued that the law could still survive under the Commerce Clause. Judge Hendrix rejected that argument as well, reasoning that courts can't go back decades later and rescue the statute under a congressional power that wasn't used to enact these provisions in the first place. That is the heart of this ruling: no tax revenue, no taxing-power justification for the regulatory system built around collecting that tax.

But This Is Not Nationwide

This is probably the most important limitation in the entire story. Judge Hendrix did not issue a nationwide injunction. The injunction protects the plaintiffs and, where applicable, their agencies, political subdivisions, members, and customers—both current and future.

That's why Gun Owners of America membership suddenly became extremely important. GOA is one of the organizational plaintiffs, and its members are covered by the injunction. The ruling also reaches current and future customers of the commercial plaintiffs and, in certain circumstances, customers of commercial members of the organizational plaintiffs. But that does not mean every American can ignore the NFA tomorrow morning. It also doesn't erase State Law.

And Then People Actually Started Doing It

This is where the story went from theoretical to very real. Judge Hendrix stayed his ruling for seven days to allow the federal government an opportunity to seek appellate relief. That stay expired, and the injunction took effect August 13. Just after midnight, GOA members Brandon Herrera and Texas Representative Wes Virdell received suppressors through Silencer Shop without completing the traditional Form 4 registration process. That was no longer a hypothetical discussion about what a court ruling might mean. Suppressors were actually leaving gun stores without NFA registration. The following day, I went to East Valley Tactical in Arizona and participated in what, to the best of our knowledge, was the first over-the-counter suppressor transfer in Arizona under the injunction. No traditional Form 4. No NFA registration. No waiting for ATF approval. That experience can be seen on my YouTube channel, Silencer Analytics. Then, on August 15, Scottsdale Gun Club stepped forward as well, transferring suppressors without Form 4 registration to Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan and former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, both GOA members. At that point, this wasn't one store in Texas testing the limits of a new ruling. It was spreading.

What About Short-Barreled Rifles?

This is where everyone needs to slow down. The Hendrix ruling covers the challenged NFA registration requirements for short-barreled rifles as they apply to covered plaintiffs and members. That makes personally making an SBR—the traditional Form 1 situation—one of the most interesting consequences of the ruling. But buying an SBR from a dealer is different. Separate provisions of the Gun Control Act still regulate dealer transfers of short-barreled rifles and shotguns. Because Judge Hendrix's ruling dealt with the NFA provisions challenged in this case, those separate federal requirements didn't simply disappear.

This is why the suppressor question is currently much cleaner than the SBR question. Suppressors are already going across counters without Form 4 registration for covered transactions. SBRs require more careful analysis depending upon whether you're making one yourself or acquiring one through a dealer.

Don't treat those as the same transaction.

This Is a Huge Victory—But the Fight Isn't Finished

For someone like me, this is difficult to overstate. The NFA was enacted in 1934. I wasn't alive in a world where Americans could walk into a gun store, complete the ordinary lawful firearm transaction, and leave with a suppressor without asking the federal government for NFA permission first. Now I've personally done exactly that. Whether you agree with the policy or not, this represents an enormous change in federal firearms law. It is also exactly what our court system is designed to do. Congress changed the underlying tax. Citizens and organizations challenged what remained. A federal judge examined the constitutional authority supporting the remaining system and ruled against the government. Now Americans covered by that judgment are putting that victory into practice.

There is still plenty that can change. The litigation isn't necessarily finished. Other courts are considering similar challenges. State laws remain different. And eventually we may see appellate courts—or ultimately the Supreme Court—decide how far this goes. But as of today, something that would have sounded impossible only a short time ago is actually happening. Americans are walking out of gun stores with suppressors without NFA registration. And for the first time in my lifetime, the question surrounding short-barreled rifles isn't simply, "How long will my Form 1 take?" It's whether covered Americans need that NFA permission at all. That's a remarkable place to be. And this story is nowhere near finished.

About The Author

Rob Orgel enlisted in the USMC in 2004 as an Infantry Rifleman (0311), serving with 3rd Bn 1st Marines in Iraq, including roles as a point man in OIF-3 & team leader in OIF-6. Later, he joined the 1st Marine Regiment, achieved the rank of Sergeant in 2010, & continued service in Afghanistan. Upon returning, he became a Combat Instructor at the School of Infantry West. Transitioning to private military contracting with Securing Our Country (SOC), he instructed at the American Embassy in Iraq. In 2018, Rob became Chief Instructor at GPS Defense Sniper School, revamping their program. Now, as owner & lead instructor at Emergency Response Tactical, he focuses on training novice to advanced shooters on the range over 300 days a year. Rob also hosts the Silencer Analytics channel on YouTube.