Can Trump’s 2A Executive Order Lead to Silencer Deregulation?

Now that President Trump has directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to scour federal statute and regulations for infringements on our Second Amendment rights, expectations are high that his executive order will lead to the undoing of Joe Biden’s anti-gun actions over the past four years. But could Trump’s EO lead to an overhaul of the National Firearms Act as well? One Wyoming-based website seems to think so. 

There might be good news coming for Wyoming hunters and shooters fed up with jumping through hoops to get suppressors for their guns, as President Donald Trump might be poised to lift 91-year-old restrictions on them.

Avid hunter, trapper and angler Adam Ashmore told Cowboy state Daily that he’d love to see that happen.

Buying a suppressor under the current rules was a bureaucratic nightmare, said Ashmore, who lives near Hartville. 

“I had to pay for it in advance,” then purchase a $200 tax stamp and file paperwork with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), he said. 

“It took a year from the time I bought it until the time I actually got it,” he said, adding that high-quality suppressors cost about $990-$1,500.

But while suppressors might become easier to obtain, that won’t be the case with fully automatic weapons, gun rights lobbyist Mark Jones of Buffalo told Cowboy State Daily. 

“I don’t hear a lot of chatter about reforming that part (restrictions on automatic weapons), that would be a lot more controversial,” said Jones, the national director for Gun Owners of America. 

Current restrictions on fully automatic rifles and pistols, submachine guns and machine guns will likely stay in place, Jones said. Those include special licensing, and extensive waiting period and paying the tax stamp. 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but unless legislation like the Hearing Protection Act or the Silencers Helping Us Save Hearing (SHUSH) Act are approved by Congress and sent to Trump’s desk for his signature, the rules regarding suppressors are likely to remain in place. 

Presidents can’t enact new laws or repeal existing ones based solely on executive actions. If they could, Joe Biden would have implemented a ban on so-called assault weapons in his first days in office. Similarly, the ATF (an executive branch agency) can’t add or subtract items that are on the NFA’s list of restricted items, so while Bondi may (and hopefully will) determine that the NFA’s treatment of suppressors is indeed an infringement on our Second Amendment rights, that alone won’t be enough to deregulate the items. 

I don’t like being peeing in anybody’s Cheerios, but I also think it’s important that gun owners have reasonable and realistic expectations about the impact and scope of Trump’s executive order. 

The president’s EO is almost certain to lead to the dismantling of the ATFs recent rules on unfinished frames and receivers, stabilizing braces, forced reset triggers, and who is “engaged in the business” of dealing in firearms. It may very well result in the DOJ deciding not to defend particular gun laws in court, and to enforce them in practice. Bondi’s report may even call on Congress to remove suppressors from the list of NFA restricted items, but gun owners who are hoping that Trump’s EO will result in suppressors being deregulated are setting themselves up for disappointment. It’s the legislative branch that will have to change the law, and in order for that to happen Second Amendment advocates are going to have to make a lot of noise on Capitol Hill about the benefits of expanding access to silencers.