Key Takeaways
- Gun Owners of America members acquired suppressors in Texas without NFA registration due to a federal court injunction.
- This injunction allows transfers of suppressors and short-barreled firearms without the usual paperwork in certain states.
- Silencer Shop is a key player in this legal change and provides insights into state-level NFA compliance requirements.
- 27 states have no NFA compliance, allowing immediate suppressor purchases; 15 states still require the Form 4 under state law.
- The situation highlights ongoing legal battles, with potential appeals from the government still possible.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
LEANDER, TX — Just after midnight on August 13, 2026, two Gun Owners of America members took possession of suppressors at a Texas storefront without registering them under the National Firearms Act of 1934. GOA says the transfers are the first of their kind since that law took effect.
Yesterday I covered the setup: GOA telling the Attorney General that Silencer Shop would hand Brandon Herrera and Wes Virdell suppressors with no Form 4 and no registry entry. What has changed is that the deadline came and went and the transfer happened. According to a press release from Gun Owners of America, Herrera and Virdell acquired the suppressors at Silencer Shop’s new storefront in Leander, Texas, immediately after midnight. Silencer Shop is the lead plaintiff in the underlying litigation. Representative Andrew Clyde of Georgia’s ninth district and GOA Senior Vice President Erich Pratt were both present.
GOA says the transfers were possible because a federal court order currently enjoins the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from enforcing NFA registration requirements for suppressors, short-barreled firearms and, in the organization’s words, “any other weapons.” An injunction is a court order that blocks an agency from enforcing a rule while a case is still being litigated. It is not the same thing as a statute disappearing from the books.
Silencer Shop put out its own video explaining what the order does and does not do, and the company is blunt about where the protection comes from. It says the injunction took effect at 12:01 a.m. on August 13, that the court order covers Silencer Shop customers because Silencer Shop is a plaintiff in the case, and that the coverage extends to buyers at Powered by Silencer Shop dealers who got their inventory from the company. The relief runs through the plaintiff, not through the product.
The part armed citizens need to read carefully is the state split. Silencer Shop says there are 27 states with no NFA compliance requirements at the state level. In those states, the company says a suppressor or an any other weapon purchase is a 4473 and a standard NICS background check, and the buyer takes it home that day like any other firearm. No Form 4, no registration, no ATF wait time.
The 27 states with no state-level NFA compliance requirement:
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- Florida
- Idaho
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- New Hampshire
- New Mexico
- Oklahoma
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- West Virginia
- Wyoming
Then there are 15 states that write the Form 4 requirement into their own state law. Buyers there still go through the federal paperwork because their own legislature put it there, and a federal injunction against the ATF does not erase a state statute.
The 15 states that still require the Form 4 under state law:
- Alaska
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Georgia
- Michigan
- Mississippi
- Montana
- Nevada
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Washington
- Wisconsin
Silencer Shop says it is working to change those laws, and that in the meantime it will keep handling the paperwork for customers in those states the way it always has.
Eight states are not on either list because suppressors are banned outright under state law:
- California
- Delaware
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Massachusetts
- New Jersey
- New York
- Rhode Island
That leaves 42 states where these items are legal at all, which is the same 42 the company cites, split 27 and 15.
Silencer Shop also corrected something it said in an earlier video. Short-barreled rifles and short-barreled shotguns were included in the court’s orders, but the company says they still require a Form 4 in all 42 states where they are legal. The reason is that the Gun Control Act is a separate law from the National Firearms Act, and the Gun Control Act requires approval from the Attorney General for short-barreled rifles and shotguns. The Form 4 is currently the only form that grants that approval. Silencer Shop says it is working to get a new form added for those cases. So the headline result here is a suppressor result, not a short-barrel result.
The company also says plainly that the government can still appeal, and that its customers are covered by the court’s protections while the case proceeds.
More from USA Carry:
The legislative path here started in Congress. GOA has said the House Rules Committee amended H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, to include Section 2 of the Constitutional Hearing Protection Act, and the organization publicly backed Section 112029 of the bill as removing suppressors from the National Firearms Act. GOA announced the House vote on May 22, 2025, and NRA-ILA reported that President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law. GOA credits Clyde’s work and the President’s signature for the change and says the provision is what made its lawsuit possible.
That is the practical shape of this. Two men walked out of a Leander gun shop with suppressors and no registry entry, and whether that experience is available to you depends on who you buy from and which of the three lists your state lands on.
Read the full article here
