On October 9, 2026, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) published an open letter stating that it would no longer enforce several provisions of the National Firearms Act (NFA) for silencers, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and other easily concealed weapons. While the law is still on the books, the ATF says it is no longer requiring people to submit an application and receive approval before manufacturing or purchasing these items, or have them marked and registered in accordance with the law.
While the ATF insists that those NFA items are still subject to state and local laws as well as the Gun Control Act (GCA), meaning licensed dealers must treat them like conventional firearms and run background checks on customers, the move will likely lead to an increase in people making their own untraceable silencers that dampen the sound of gunfire as well as short-barreled rifles and shotguns that are easy to hide under a coat or in a backpack. Additionally, these once-highly-regulated items can now be bought and sold without a background check in states that do not require them for private-party transfers.
The move is one of the biggest “wins” that the second Trump administration has delivered for the gun industry — along with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which zeroed out the $200 taxes required by the NFA for making and purchasing silencers, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and “any other weapons.”
GrabAGun, an online firearms retailer backed by Donald Trump Jr., issued a press release thanking “President Trump for making this relief possible” as well as the “ATF, Director Robert Cekada, Chief Counsel Robert Leider, and all of the agency’s hard-working staff.” The company also added that “[o]ur right to keep and bear arms comes from our Creator.” More examples of gun industry praise are below.
At a recent rally in Kalispell, Montana, President Trump boasted of his administration eliminating what he called the NFA’s “cruel federal permitting requirements.” Trump said that he “took a little heat in Washington” for ending them and had received “a lot of phone calls,” but “it’s already done and I can’t do anything about it.”
“Liberty and Justice For All”
In addition to jeopardizing public safety and creating legal risks for people who decide to make, buy, or sell unregistered NFA items, the ATF’s “nonenforcement policy” has sown a great deal of confusion. In an attempt to answer questions from the gun industry and the public more broadly, the ATF has repeatedly updated an FAQ page since the open letter was published.
The agency also released a guidance memo on October 14 that attempts to reframe its decision to not enforce major provisions of the NFA as a win for freedom with the title “NFA Guidance: Liberty and Justice For All.” The title is unlike any previous ATF publication’s, simultaneously pandering to gun rights activists while downplaying the danger communities across the country now face.
Short-barreled AR-15s have been used in at least five mass shootings, including in Dayton, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Nashville, and Manhattan. Short-barreled shotguns were used in the Columbine, Washington Navy Yard, and Santa Fe High School mass shootings, and silencers (or sound suppressors) have been used in several high-profile shootings since they were invented, including most recently in the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Since its enactment, the NFA has helped protect the public from these items and limit their accessibility, but now the agency tasked with enforcing the NFA has abdicated that responsibility.
In August, a federal judge in the Northern District of Texas barred the Department of Justice (DOJ) and ATF from enforcing certain NFA provisions against the plaintiffs in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF. But the Trump administration took that ruling and expanded it to cover all Americans.
As the ATF states in its “Liberty and Justice For All” memo, “Equal justice under the law is a founding principle of this country. The law should apply to everyone. A citizen’s rights should not depend on who could afford a lawyer or who filed a lawsuit. That’s why DOJ and ATF have worked together to use the Department’s enforcement discretion to ensure the injunction in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF applies to everyone, not just those covered parties.”
The ATF also argues that fully enforcing the NFA for everyone except those “certain covered parties” “creates complexity for you and for the ATF.” So, the DOJ and ATF have used their “discretion to apply this decision to all law-abiding Americans.” However, the ATF’s new guidance creates significant new complexity for law enforcement and gun owners, as demonstrated by the numerous caveats in the guidance related to state laws and the potential for the guidance to be reversed by a subsequent administration.
A Windfall for the Gun Industry
The gun industry has been celebrating the ATF’s decision to step away from the NFA — at a time when silencer sales are already booming. For example, on October 12, Palmetto State Armory, a company that sells a variety of silencers and assault weapons configured as short-barreled rifles, posted a video in which the company’s founder, Jamin McCallum, called the ATF guidance “a massive development for the Second Amendment, and it’s one Palmetto State Armory is proud to have helped fight for.”1Palmetto State Armory, “NFA Ruling Applied NATION WIDE – Here’s What It Means for PSA Customers | Palmetto State Armory,” YouTube, October 12, 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIRKxy4I798, at 0:40.
McCallum said, “Today, we’re seeing what happens when people are willing to stand up, put in the work, and refuse to accept that something is right just because Washington has been doing it for nearly a century. This is exactly why Palmetto State Armory exists. Our mission is the relentless pursuit of spreading freedom to all Americans,” echoing the ATF’s own guidance materials.2Ibid, at 3:42.
Another gun maker, CMMG, posted photos on X of a short-barreled assault weapon with a silencer attached. The caption called the ATF guidance “a big win for America” and asked followers when they’re getting their next silencer.
Similarly, in a pair of tweets, retailer Primary Arms celebrated “one of the biggest wins in years” and advertised an array of silencers as well as a “personal defense weapon” (PDW) kit that converts a pistol into a short-barreled rifle. When a user commented that they’re considering purchasing the latter, the company responded with “FRT?” The Trump administration allowed forced-reset triggers, or FRTs, which allow semi-automatic firearms to fire like machine guns, to return to the market in May 2025.
What About Arm Braces?
The ATF guidance on short-barreled rifles has had one notable side effect. SB Tactical, a company that specializes in arm braces that allow short-barreled AR-15 and AK-47 “pistols” to be fired from the shoulder, said in an Instagram post that “the very restrictions that helped create a market for our products are no longer being federally enforced” — a tacit admission that arm braces were used as NFA workarounds. The company says the ATF guidance “will have a big impact on our business, but we’ve always said that if SB Tactical ever goes down, we wanted this to be the reason why.”
The company thanked its partners and customers, adding, “And to everyone posting videos of themselves throwing our braces in the trash: we support your enthusiasm. We really do. But after nearly 15 years together, that hurts our feelings a little.”
