Burdensome Gun-Suppressor Rules May Not Be Dead Forever. Here’s What Could Zap Them Back To Life.

A future administration could overturn the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) guidance on gun registration requirements for suppressors if an anti-gun administration took power, a Second Amendment legal scholar warned the Daily Caller News Foundation Monday.

The new guidance, released Friday in an open letter and a more detailed “frequently asked questions” (FAQ) document, was sent to all federally-licensed firearms dealers (FFLs) detailing how ATF would implement the federal laws impacted by a federal ruling that ended gun registration processes for items including suppressors, while steering clear of overriding state and local laws and regulations. However, the agency noted in the letter that its guidance could be altered by a future administration, Second Amendment Foundation Director of Legal Research and Education Konstadinos Moros pointed out to the DCNF.

“This district court ruled that under the taxing power, the laws, the registration requirements are unconstitutional. DOJ did not appeal. So because of that, and they didn’t appeal and they’ve announced that they’re basically not going to enforce this as per the ATF guidance,” Moros told the DCNF. “But if President Newsom or whoever takes office in 2029, he could tell ATF, ‘Nope, get back to enforcing this. We’re going to try and overturn this district court ruling.’”

“You can enforce it in another part of the country even, and we’ll fight it out in court and then the battle just resumes in a few years,” Moros continued. “And it’s unclear, you know, if we were to then lose, what would happen with these, all these suppressors and SBRs and everything else that got sold. If I had to predict, there probably would be some sort of grace period, like they’d give everyone 90 days to get them registered, you know, before they resumed enforcement.”

ATF said it will no longer require Form 4s for the transfer of suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and “any other weapons,” a legal category to cover other firearms not defined in federal law.

United States District Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the Northern District of Texas, a Trump appointee, handed down his ruling striking down the NFA requirements on Aug. 5 on the grounds that reducing the transfer tax to $0 in 2025’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act rendered the registration and processing requirements of the NFA unconstitutional. The Justice Department informed Congress it would not appeal the decision in a Sept. 24 letter.