Can You Buy a Suppressor Without a Form 4 Right Now? A Dealer’s Straight Answer

Updated August 14, 2026. This is a fast-moving legal situation and we are updating this page as it develops. If you want the short version: no, you cannot walk into most gun stores today and buy a suppressor with no ATF paperwork — and any shop telling you otherwise owes you a much longer conversation than they are having. Here is what actually happened, who it actually covers, and what it means if you are buying a can in Texas this week.

What the court actually ruled

On August 5, 2026, Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued final judgment in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF (consolidated with Jensen v. ATF). The court held that the National Firearms Act’s registration and approval requirements for suppressors, short-barreled rifles and short-barreled shotguns exceed Congress’s constitutional authority.

Here is the part almost every headline has gotten wrong. This was not a Second Amendment ruling. It was a taxing-power ruling, and the logic runs like this:

• The NFA was passed in 1934 as a tax law. The registration scheme was always constitutionally justified as a way to help collect that tax.
• The One Big Beautiful Bill Act zeroed out the making and transfer tax on suppressors, SBRs, SBSs and AOWs effective January 1, 2026.
• No tax means nothing left to collect — and, the court reasoned, nothing left to hold up the registration scheme.

In the court’s own words: “Because today’s NFA does not generate any revenue from untaxed firearms, its regulatory provisions cannot be upheld under the taxing power.”

So the $0 tax stamp that took effect in January is not a side note to this ruling. It is the entire reason the ruling happened.

Suppressors were not “deregulated”

We have had this conversation across the counter a dozen times this week, so let’s be direct about it. Suppressors are still firearms under the Gun Control Act of 1968. That did not change and was never at issue in this case.

What that means in practice, for everybody, no exceptions:

• ATF Form 4473 is still required. Same form you fill out for a rifle.
• The NICS background check is still required.
• Prohibited persons still cannot buy one. Age limits still apply.
• The transfer still goes through a licensed dealer.
• State and local law still applies and was not touched by this ruling at all.

Nobody is handing suppressors across a counter like a box of ammunition. Anyone telling you the NFA is dead is selling you something.

Who the ruling actually covers — and who it doesn’t

This is the single most misunderstood part, and it is the part that could get somebody in real trouble.

The court expressly refused to issue a nationwide order. Citing the Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Trump v. CASA, Judge Hendrix wrote that federal courts “lack power to issue universal injunctions that provide relief to parties not before the Court.” The relief, he wrote, goes to the plaintiffs, their members and their customers — “but that is as far as it goes.”

So the injunction follows people, not state lines. You are inside it only if you connect to a named party.

Organizations whose members are covered

• Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation
• Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition (FRAC)
• Texas State Rifle Association
• FPC Action Foundation
• Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA)

Companies whose customers are covered

• Silencer Shop · SilencerCo · Palmetto State Armory · B&T USA · Hot Shots Custom

Who is not covered — read this twice

• NRA members. The NRA backed the case but is not a named plaintiff. Membership does not put you inside the injunction, regardless of what you may have read.
• SAF members. CCRKBA is the plaintiff, not SAF. They are separate organizations. SAF has said so publicly and is offering a joint membership specifically to close that gap.
• Texans, by virtue of being Texans. Texas is one of fifteen states that joined the suit — but the state joined as a sovereign, not on behalf of every resident. Attorneys working this issue are consistent: residency alone does not make you a party.
• Customers of shops that aren’t named plaintiffs. Including, to be completely straight with you, ours.

And even for people who are covered, the boundary is fuzzy. The plaintiffs tied protection to “qualifying transactions,” and nobody has defined what that means. GOA’s own federal affairs director, describing the first two transfers, said those buyers were covered on every axis at once — covered manufacturer, covered dealer, covered customers who were also GOA members — and acknowledged most people “aren’t as covered on all sides.”

What the ATF has said about it: nothing

As of today, the ATF has issued no guidance, no open letter, and no instruction to dealers. There is nothing on atf.gov. Nothing to the NFA Division. Nothing to us.

On August 13, the plaintiffs’ own counsel sent the Department of Justice a five-question letter asking for clarity and requested answers by August 21. Among the questions: how will the government tell covered from non-covered people, and — the big one — how will the government treat items made or transferred during the injunction if it is later stayed, modified or dissolved?

That question has no answer right now. Not from ATF, not from DOJ, not from anyone. And it is the question that matters most if you are thinking about buying a can without registering it.

The risk nobody can price yet

The government’s deadline to file a notice of appeal runs to October 5, 2026. Reporting on whether DOJ intends to appeal is genuinely contradictory: a member of Congress has said the administration confirmed it will not, while DOJ’s only on-the-record statement is that it is “currently assessing the impact,” and at least one outlet reports a senior DOJ official is working to secure an appeal. Take your pick — but nobody should tell you this is settled.

If an appellate court later reverses, someone who transferred or possessed an unregistered suppressor in the meantime could be looking at criminal exposure under the restored standard. There is no announced amnesty, no grandfather provision, no compliance window. There may end up being one. There may not.

The other loose thread: 26 U.S.C. § 5861(j), which bars transporting an unregistered NFA firearm in interstate commerce, was not enjoined. Neither was 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(4). So there is an unresolved knot where a can might be lawfully acquired unregistered and yet legally impossible to take across a state line — and impossible to register, because the injunction bars ATF from requiring it. No court and no agency has untangled that.

What Western Sport is doing right now

We have been an SOT / Class III dealer in Roanoke since 2007, and our answer this week is the same one the American Suppressor Association, FFL compliance counsel, and even the plaintiff companies themselves are giving:

Our process has not changed. We are running Form 4s exactly as we were last month, and we will keep doing that until the ATF puts something in writing. Palmetto State Armory and SilencerCo — both named plaintiffs in the case they won — are telling their own customers the same thing. When the winners of a lawsuit tell you not to change anything yet, that is worth listening to.

The good news that is nailed down and is not going anywhere: your tax stamp costs $0. That has been true since January 1 and it does not depend on this ruling surviving appeal. If the $200 was the thing keeping you off suppressors, that reason is already gone, and the paperwork we handle for you here in the shop.

If your situation is unusual — you are a GOA or CCRKBA member, you are buying through one of the named companies, you have a Form 4 already pending, or you are moving to or from a state with its own registration law — call us at (817) 393-4000 and we will walk through where you actually stand instead of guessing from a headline.

State law did not change at all

Worth repeating because it gets lost: this injunction binds federal defendants. It does nothing to state law.

Suppressors remain banned outright in California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C.

These states still require NFA-style registration under their own law, regardless of the federal ruling: Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin. Note that a few of those — Alaska, Georgia, Montana, North Dakota — were plaintiff states in this very case and still require registration under their own statutes.

Texas is not on either list. Suppressors are legal to own here and always have been.

One more warning: this is messier for SBRs

The ruling covered short-barreled rifles and shotguns too, but 18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(4) was not enjoined — and that is the provision requiring Attorney General authorization for a dealer to transfer one. NRA-ILA’s read is that the old procedure will likely still be required for SBR and SBS transfers absent further government action. At least one major retailer has already had to walk back what it told customers on this point. If you are planning an SBR build off the back of this news, talk to us first.

Common questions

Can you buy a suppressor without a stamp in 2026?

The stamp itself has cost $0 since January 1, 2026, so in the sense of paying $200 — yes, and that has nothing to do with the August ruling. But you still file an ATF Form 4 and register the suppressor unless you fall inside the narrow party-limited injunction from Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF. For most buyers at most dealers, the registration step is still there.

Can you buy a suppressor without a stamp now in Texas?

Suppressors are legal in Texas and the tax is $0. But the August 5 injunction does not cover you simply because you live in Texas — the state joined the lawsuit as a sovereign, not on behalf of every resident. At Western Sport we are still filing Form 4s, and until the ATF issues guidance that is what we would tell any Texas buyer to expect.

Will suppressors be removed from the NFA in 2026?

A federal district court has ruled the NFA’s registration requirements unconstitutional as applied to suppressors, but only as to the parties in that case. Suppressors have not been removed from the NFA by Congress, and the government has until October 5, 2026 to appeal. Nothing about the outcome is settled.

What happens if you get caught with a suppressor without a tax stamp?

Possessing an unregistered NFA firearm has historically been a federal felony carrying up to ten years and a $250,000 fine. The August injunction bars enforcement of several of those provisions against covered parties only. If you are not covered, the old exposure is still the operating assumption — and if you are covered but the ruling is later reversed, no one has said how prior transfers would be treated. This is not a place to guess.

Do I still need a Form 4 to buy from Western Sport?

Yes. Our process is unchanged, and we will keep filing Form 4s until the ATF publishes guidance for dealers. We handle the filing, fingerprints and photos in the shop, and the stamp costs you nothing.

Does the ruling apply nationwide?

No. The court explicitly declined to issue a universal injunction, citing Trump v. CASA. It also did not limit relief geographically — covered people are covered anywhere. The line is drawn around who you are, not where you are.

The bottom line

Something real happened on August 5, and it may turn out to be the most significant change to the NFA since 1934. It is also, right now, narrower than nine out of ten headlines suggest, unsupported by any ATF guidance, and open to appeal until October.

Our advice to customers this week is the boring, correct one: buy the can you want, let us file the Form 4 the way we always have, pay $0 for the stamp, and let the lawyers finish. If the ground shifts in a way that helps you, we will call you — we are watching this daily.

Sources

• Final Judgment and Memorandum Opinion, Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF, No. 6:25-cv-00056-H (N.D. Tex. Aug. 5, 2026)
• NRA-ILA — What Does the Texas NFA Decision Mean for You?
• Second Amendment Foundation — NFA Injunction resource page
• American Suppressor Association — guidance to dealers and owners
• SilencerCo — statement to customers
• Palmetto State Armory — statement to customers
• Gun Owners of America — first transfers without registration

Western Sport is a licensed FFL and SOT / Class III dealer in Roanoke, Texas. This article is general information about a developing legal situation, not legal advice, and it is accurate to the best of our knowledge as of August 14, 2026. Federal guidance and state law vary and can change quickly — call us at (817) 393-4000 before acting on anything you read here or anywhere else.