ATF Issues New Rules for Gun Dealers Regarding Silencers

Suppressors are now legal for some of us, not for others, and a whole confusing mess now exists that many people want no part of. Believe me, I get it. What we’ve needed is clarification from the ATF about what’s happening.

And it seems the ATF has issued an open letter to FFLs… clarifying nothing about that.

But it’s still good news. The rules deal with suppressors and the repair or changing of the caliber it can fire. As it has long stood, doing any of those things was pretty much the same as making a brand new one.

Not anymore.

The purpose of this open letter is to notify all federal firearm licensees (FFLs) of guidance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) regarding modifying firearm silencers registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR). A complete silencer may be repaired, or the caliber may be changed, and such actions will not be considered a new making under the National Firearms Act (NFA), provided the action does not result in destroying the serialized “frame or receiver,” remove, obliterate, or alter required markings, or make a new firearm. 

The NFA defines the term “make” as “manufacturing (other than by one qualified to engage in such business under this chapter), putting together, altering, any combination of these, or otherwise producing a firearm.” 26 U.S.C. § 5845(i). The NFA defines the term “firearm” to include “any silencer” as defined under the Gun Control Act (GCA). 26 U.S.C. § 5845(a)(7). The definition of “firearm silencer” includes not only “any device for silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of a portable firearm,” but also, “any part intended only for use in such assembly or fabrication” of a firearm silencer or firearm muffler. 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(24). 

…

However, pursuant to guidance in the FAQ document, the NFA’s marking, tax, and registration requirements were not implicated if a repair could be performed: without replacing the outer tube, by repairing the damaged component parts of the silencer, or by replacing damaged component parts on a one-to-one basis. Replacing parts on a one-to-one basis was critical to the analysis because the statutory definition of “firearm silencer or muffler” defines each part of a device as a registrable firearm. Increasing the length of a silencer would likely mean adding parts, including additional baffles, that were not part of the firearm originally registered. Similarly, modifying parts, including drilling baffles to increase the caliber, made a new part, itself a “firearm,” that required marking and registration. 

In other words, so long as the serial number is left alone, the ATF will view it as being the same suppressor, which is a ridiculously sensible thing to do, even with the NFA being enforced. The only thing about this that’s stupid is that this letter was ever needed in the first place.

Repairing a suppressor should never require additional paperwork.

Modifying the caliber it fires shouldn’t either. It’s akin to requiring me to go through the whole NICS process again because I put a .308 upper on my AR. It’s still the same gun; it just shoots something different now. A suppressor with a new caliber is kind of the same thing.

So yeah, this is good news about suppressors from the ATF.

It’s still not what we wanted to hear from them about suppressors, but it’s something. And, to make it better, it’s something somewhat sensible. At least, sensible if you’re going to have the stupid restrictions in the first place, which will hopefully go down in flames soon enough.

It also makes things a bit easier on the gunsmiths, manufacturers, and dealers who handle these things. It’s not the same process over and over and over again.

Now the agency needs to tell us what in the world happens if we buy suppressors without registration because we can, but the rules revert back for some reason in the future. I’d kind of like to know before I drop money on a good suppressor. 

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