ATF Director Robert Cekada spoke with Breitbart News after the new guidelines for suppressor sales were signed and noted that ATF took the ruling against federal requirements for suppressor registration and applied it to all law-abiding Americans.
The new guidelines are in response to an August 5, 2026, court ruling wherein the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Judge James Wesley Hendrix found registration requirements for suppressors and short-barreled rifles and shotguns “unconstitutional” in the absence of a tax. (The tax on suppressors and short-barreled rifles and shotguns was removed via President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.)
The case was Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF and Hendrix ruled that plaintiffs and their members could not be required to follow the cumbersome registration procedure.
The public waited and, on October 2, 2026, Breitbart News noted that the Department of Justice (DOJ) made clear it would not appeal the ruling. This put Federal Firearms License holders (FFLs) in a holding pattern as they awaited ATF guidance on how to proceed with sales of suppressors and short-barreled rifles and shotguns.
The guidance was signed by Attorney General Todd Blanche and released by the ATF on October 9, 2026. Among other things, the guidance makes clear that the ATF is not applying the August 5, 2026, ruling only to members of plaintiffs’ groups, but to all law-abiding Americans.
The guidance says:
Although the district court’s injunction applies only to plaintiffs and certain other specified persons, the Department has determined to exercise its enforcement discretion to create greater uniformity, consistent with the Attorney General’s statement today. Consequently, effective October 9, 2026, ATF will no longer require individuals to seek ATF approval under the NFA before making or transferring short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, or silencers, and “any other weapon[s]” as defined in 26 U.S.C. § 5845(e).
The guidance adds, “ATF will also no longer require such items to be registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.”
We asked Director Cekada if he could sum up this aspect of the new guidance in layman’s terms, and he said, “When the August 5, 2026, ruling came forward it benefited the plaintiffs, which was a very specific group of people. ATF and the Department of Justice looked closely at the ruling and thought the right path for us going forward was to apply it to all law-abiding citizens without requiring them to be a member of any sort of organization or to be a plaintiff in this particular matter. In other words, we thought the fairest way was to appropriately attach the protections to all American citizens and protect the Second Amendment at the same time.”
We also asked him about the limitations of the new guidance as it pertains to state laws that may require registration for suppressors and/or short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and he explained, “This is important, because there are a number of states that still require the making or transfer of a suppressor, short-barreled rifle, or short-barreled shotgun, or ‘any other weapon[s]’ to be done via Form 1 or Form 4. ATF does not have the authority to override those states or make them comply with our reading of what the ruling did or the policy that we put forth.”
He continued, “Because some states explicitly require people to complete a Form 1 or Form 4 and have approval on file with ATF before making a transfer, we will continue to accept those voluntary submissions from people in those states so that commerce for those particular items can continue. This protects the ability for people in those states to continue expressing their Second Amendment right to purchase those items that they wish to purchase.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. He is a lever action man in an AR-15 world. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.