On July 23, the Trump administration issued joint rules that will move oversight of silencer exports from the jurisdiction of the State Department, which controls exports for military firearms and accessories, to the Commerce Department. The transition will reduce the vetting required for silencer export applications, thus making it easier for silencer manufacturers and retailers to export these tactical accessories to more customers abroad, and for silencer owners to travel with them.
The move is the latest by the Trump administration to help the gun industry sell more silencers, or sound suppressors, which were federally regulated in 1934 because of their use in violent incidents and the danger they pose, as they make it difficult for bystanders and police to recognize that a gun has been fired and pinpoint the direction of fire.
Despite these dangers, the gun industry has spent years trying to normalize silencers and get them into more hands, marketing them as hearing protection aids. The Trump administration has also eliminated the federal tax required to own silencers and put forward proposals to streamline the silencer-buying process.
A Timeline of Trump’s Firearms Export Changes
While relaxing silencer export restrictions will create new revenue streams for the gun industry, recent history indicates that the move will likely have a negative impact on public safety in other countries. In January 2020, after successful lobbying from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the first Trump administration issued a rule that shifted oversight of most firearm exports from the State Department to the Commerce Department, streamlining the process for exporters and leading to a surge in gun violence abroad. A Bloomberg investigation found that American-made firearms were flooding “some of the most violent countries in the world,” fueling crime, gun violence, and political instability.
For example, in October 2022, a legally exported Sig Sauer P365 was used in a mass shooting at a preschool in Thailand that left 36 people dead, including 23 children. In August 2023, an American-made firearm was diverted from Peru to Ecuador and used to assassinate a presidential candidate. The Commerce Department also identified firearms exports to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan that were diverted to Russia and may have been used in its invasion of Ukraine.
More recently, a February 2025 Government Accountability Office report found that U.S. export licenses were aiding the flow of weapons to foreign criminal organizations, corrupt police and military forces, and authoritarian governments.
To combat this, the Biden administration issued an interim final rule in April 2024 that tightened firearms export requirements, improved oversight over where U.S. guns end up, and promoted national security and foreign policy interests. But the second Trump administration rescinded that rule — as well as a requirement that Congress be notified of any export applications for semi-automatic firearms worth over $4 million — in October 2025.
Easing Silencer Exports
In addition to easing firearm exports, the first Trump administration also ended the ban on silencer exports to private foreign buyers in July 2020. That prohibition was first enacted in 2002 to prevent the devices from falling into the wrong hands and being used against American soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to The New York Times, a White House lawyer, Michael B. Williams, “pushed to overturn the prohibition, raising the issue with influential administration officials and creating pressure within the State Department.” Years earlier, he had served as general counsel of the American Suppressor Association (ASA) alongside his brother, Knox, who still serves as the organization’s president and executive director.
At the time, Knox Williams and the ASA applauded the Trump administration “for taking charge and allowing American businesses to compete in thriving markets abroad.” But the State Department retained jurisdiction over silencer exports at the time because of “their military utility” and “their ability to obscure the location of weapons fire, limiting an adversary’s ability to counter-attack,” as the Department noted in its new rule.
The State Department has changed its analysis, however. It “now assesses that firearm silencers, mufflers, and suppressors, other than those specially designed for fully automatic firearms, no longer provide a critical military or intelligence advantage” because of the “growing global adoption of firearm suppressors for civil uses; the reported benefits associated with reduced firearms noise; the existence of numerous foreign manufacturers of such items; and the Department’s assessment that barriers to acquiring the instructions, materials, and skills to effectively manufacture these items have become appreciably lower.”
The Department’s comments echo talking points made by groups like the ASA and NSSF. Notably, while the NSSF argues that England and “many other European countries” generally do not restrict silencers, the group admits that they also have “much more restrictive firearms laws” in the first place. Among other talking points, the NSSF also points out the obvious: that the “lawful use of suppressors does not increase crime” (emphasis added).
Neither of the new silencer rules mentions, or even attempts to assess, any potential impacts on the safety of civilians or military personnel through the unlawful use of these devices. But the State Department notes that any downsides will be outweighed “by the fact that U.S. industry will benefit by having more access to foreign markets alongside foreign competitors.”
The Gun Industry CELEBRATES
As expected, the ASA and NSSF celebrated the new silencer export rules. The ASA said that the rules will “allow American suppressor manufacturers to compete with certain products in commercial markets abroad” and “create hundreds of jobs at a time when our country needs them most.” Similarly, the NSSF said the “reforms will make American suppressor manufacturing an international competitor for what is essentially a muffler for a gun.”
The NSSF also took the opportunity to highlight the Hearing Protection Act, a bill first introduced in 2015 that would allow silencers to be sold like conventional firearms.
In a blog post, the National Rifle Association asked supporters to comment on the rule: “No doubt the usual gun control suspects will make their displeasure known (even though the products will actually be leaving the country in most cases), so supportive and constructive comments will benefit this long-sought reform effort.” The comment period ends on August 24, 2026.