The appeal deadline passed on Oct. 5, after the Justice Department told Congress it would not challenge the ruling that gutted NFA registration for suppressors. Buyers are reading that as the end of paperwork. It is not, at least not for everyone at your counter. Here is what a licensee can and cannot do right now.
On Aug. 5, 2026, Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the Northern District of Texas entered final judgment in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF, consolidated with Jensen v. ATF. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act had already set the making and transfer tax on suppressors, SBRs, SBSs and any other weapon to zero effective Jan. 1, 2026, while leaving the registration scheme in place. Hendrix held that without a tax to collect, the registration and application provisions can no longer be justified under Congress's taxing power. The Second Amendment claims were dismissed without prejudice, so this is an enumerated-powers ruling, not a Second Amendment ruling. The injunction took effect Aug. 13, after a seven-day stay expired.
The order is party-specific. It binds ATF, DOJ and the named officials, but protects the plaintiffs and, where applicable, their agencies, political subdivisions, members and customers, current and future. Judge Hendrix expressly declined to issue a nationwide injunction, so a buyer who is neither a member of a named organization nor a customer of a named company is not covered and the old rules still apply. Machine guns, destructive devices and the special occupational tax remain fully under the NFA. Silencers, SBRs and SBSs are covered for all plaintiffs, but any-other-weapon relief runs only to the Silencer Shop plaintiffs. Nine states are awaiting a court answer, due Oct. 12, on whether the order reaches all of their residents or only state agencies. Background: DOJ confirms it will not appeal the NFA ruling.
The court enjoined NFA provisions. It did not touch the Gun Control Act. A covered suppressor transfer still requires a Form 4473 and the ordinary background check through NICS or your state point of contact. The point-of-sale exception exists because an approved Form 4 is an approval under 26 U.S.C. 5812, and that approval supplies the check. Skip the Form 4 and you skip the exception, so you run the standard inquiry. Nor does the injunction reach the interstate provisions in 26 U.S.C. 5861(j) and (k), which is why dealer-to-dealer transfers across state lines and moving an unregistered can between states remain unresolved, and why ATF has no published way to remove an item from the NFRTR without a Form 4. SBRs and SBSs also still face 18 U.S.C. 922(b)(4), which requires Attorney General authorization for a dealer to deliver one, so the NFA process remains the only path. See John Pierce on Form 4473 suppressor transfers and what the interstate handgun ruling changes for FFLs.
ATF Director Robert Cekada says the agency is following the order and will not take enforcement action against protected parties inconsistent with it, and that written guidance is being finalized. Reporting from the agency's briefings puts that guidance days away. Dealers inspected after covered Form 4473-only transfers report zero violations, and former NFA chief Steve Albro has said ATF presumes those transfers were legal. Treat that as encouraging, not as authority: informal statements do not rewrite your inspection exposure or your state law obligations, and roughly fifteen states still require NFA compliance for a suppressor transfer. See also ATF says suppressor and SBR guidance could arrive within weeks.
The ruling is real and it will not be appealed, but it is a party-specific injunction, not a nationwide repeal. The Gun Control Act, the machine gun provisions, the occupational tax and roughly fifteen state statutes still apply. Dealers who document coverage and keep doing the GCA steps get the benefit; dealers who read a headline and skip steps get a finding. If a customer asks whether the NFA is gone, the honest answer is that for some people, some items and part of it, yes. Get your attorney's sign-off before you use the new path.