Key Takeaways
- Gun Owners of America has set a deadline for the DOJ and ATF regarding firearm silencer transfers following a court injunction.
- The injunction allows a Texas dealer to transfer silencers without filing Form 4 or seeking ATF approval after August 13, 2026.
- The court ruled that current NFA provisions exceed Congress’s powers as they are based on a tax that raises no revenue.
- The government must respond by 5:00 p.m. Eastern on August 12, or the transfer will be considered lawful, marking a historic event since 1934.
- The ruling only applies to the plaintiffs and their members, and the government may still appeal.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
SPRINGFIELD, VA — Gun Owners of America has put the Department of Justice and the ATF on the clock. In a letter dated August 12, 2026, GOA notified Attorney General Todd Blanche and ATF Director Robert Cekada that at midnight, a federally licensed dealer in Texas will transfer two firearm silencers to two named customers without filing a Form 4, without seeking ATF approval, and without entering either silencer in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.
The letter is on Gun Owners of America letterhead, was posted publicly by GOA, and is signed by Brandon Herrera, Wes Virdell, and Silencer Shop CEO Dave Matheny, with signature timestamps from the night of August 11.
Here is what it rests on. On August 5, Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas entered a permanent injunction in Silencer Shop Foundation v. BATFE, No. 6:25-CV-056-H, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174125 (N.D. Tex. Aug. 5, 2026). GOA quotes the court finding that the “challenged NFA provisions rise and fall on the taxing power,” and that because Congress “invoked the Taxing Clause” rather than its power to regulate interstate commerce, those provisions “exceed Congress’s enumerated powers.”
🚨BREAKING🚨
GOA, @SilencerShop, @TheAKGuy, & @WesVirdellTX have officially notified ATF & DOJ of our intent to transfer suppressors tonight, at 12:01AM CDT on 8/13/26, without complying with the currently enjoined requirements of the National Firearms Act of 1934. https://t.co/iyr4teQtN9 pic.twitter.com/iYEbbcryMo
— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) August 12, 2026
The argument behind that is simple enough to explain at a gun counter. The National Firearms Act of 1934 was sold to Congress as a revenue measure, a tax on making and transferring certain firearms, and the registration paperwork existed to collect it. In the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, Congress zeroed out the making and transfer taxes on silencers, short-barreled firearms, and any other weapons, then left every page of the paperwork in place. The plaintiffs argued that a tax raising no revenue is not a tax, and that nothing was left holding the paperwork up.
Per the letter, the court permanently enjoined the ATF, the Justice Department, Blanche, Cekada, and anyone acting in concert with them from enforcing the challenged NFA provisions as to untaxed firearms against the plaintiffs, and extended that relief to “members, and customers, both current and future.”
Hendrix then stayed his own order for seven calendar days, which gave the government a window to act. GOA writes that the Justice Department has not appealed. That puts the injunction in force at midnight Central on August 13, and that is the deadline the letter is built around.
What happens then is specific. Silencer Shop, a federal firearms licensee, intends to transfer one silencer to Herrera and a second to Virdell, both transactions inside Texas, on business premises the public copy of the letter redacts. The parties say they will follow state law, the Gun Control Act, and the associated ATF regulations. What they will not do is file the Form 4, ask ATF to approve the transfers, or register either silencer. GOA states that both men are law-abiding Texas residents eligible to possess firearms, that both are GOA members and Silencer Shop customers, and that they are therefore “covered twice over” by the injunction. Virdell holds a current Texas License to Carry.
Herrera is the Republican nominee for the U.S. House in Texas’s 23rd Congressional District. Virdell is the state representative for Texas House District 53. GOA notes that both are endorsed by President Trump.
The last section of the letter is the part that matters most. GOA writes that neither ATF nor DOJ has issued any guidance on the Texas injunction, and gives the government until 5:00 p.m. Eastern on August 12 to say in writing that the transfers would be unlawful or that it intends to keep enforcing the challenged provisions anyway. If the government says nothing, the letter states, then what happens at midnight is “the very first lawful commercial transfer of a silencer since June 26, 1934” without complying with the terms of the NFA.
More from USA Carry:
Now the caution. This is one district court, and by GOA’s own description the relief runs to the plaintiffs, their members, and their customers, not to every suppressor owner in the country. The government has conceded nothing publicly and still has appellate options. Until the opinion and the government’s position can be read directly, nothing here is a green light to change how you handle your own paperwork.
I will continue tracking the injunction, the Justice Department’s response to the 5 p.m. deadline, and what happens at midnight.
Read the full article here
