The Justice Department will not appeal a federal court ruling that bars the ATF from enforcing the National Firearms Act's registration rules for suppressors and short-barreled rifles and shotguns. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told Congress in a letter on Thursday, October 1, that "the Department of Justice has determined not to file an appeal." The Oregon Firearms Federation called it "another victory" in an alert to members this week, and on that central point the alert is right. But the ruling covers fewer people and fewer guns than the alert suggests, and for Oregonians the biggest catch is in state law.
What the court decided
On August 5, Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF, a case brought by 15 states and gun-rights groups including Gun Owners of America. The 1934 law required buyers of these weapons to apply to the ATF, submit fingerprints and register each item, and the courts had long upheld it as part of Congress's power to tax. Last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act cut the $200 tax on these items to zero, starting in January. "Because today's NFA does not generate any revenue from untaxed firearms, its regulatory provisions cannot be upheld under the taxing power," Hendrix wrote, and he found no other power of Congress to support them. Machine guns and explosive devices, whose tax was not cut, are not affected.
President Trump decided against an appeal, CBS News reported in September, over the objections of some career and politically appointed Justice Department lawyers. They argued the department has a duty to defend laws Congress passed and warned that the ruling was already disrupting federal gun prosecutions; in Alabama, prosecutors dropped a silencer charge after the defendant's lawyer said his client had joined one of the plaintiff groups after the ruling. A White House spokesperson said anyone barred from buying a gun before the ruling is still barred.
Who it covers
The order is not nationwide. It protects the named plaintiffs, members of the plaintiff groups, and the customers of the plaintiff companies, "both current and future," in the judge's words. The law firm Wiley, which represented plaintiffs, says coverage depends on a buyer's connection to a plaintiff, "not on the ruling's existence alone." CBS noted that a year's membership in Gun Owners of America costs $25. Fifteen states joined the suit, but their residents are not covered just by living there.
What it does not do
For a covered buyer, a suppressor now transfers like an ordinary rifle, with a background check on a Form 4473 and no ATF wait. Short-barreled rifles and shotguns are different. A separate federal law, which the suit did not challenge, still bars dealers from handing them to buyers without the Attorney General's authorization, which in practice means an approved Form 4, Wiley says. The ATF has not issued guidance on how it will carry out the order.
The Oregon catch
Oregon makes it a Class B felony to possess a suppressor, short-barreled rifle or short-barreled shotgun. The law's protection for owners is federal registration: police may not arrest someone who carries papers showing the item "is registered as required under federal law," and that registration is a defense in court. An Oregonian who buys under the injunction and skips federal registration would have no such papers. Whether "required under federal law" still applies to a buyer the ATF is barred from requiring to register has not been tested, and Profoundd found no ruling or guidance from Oregon courts or the attorney general on it. Wiley advises buyers in states whose laws turn on federal registration to file a Form 4 voluntarily, which the ruling still allows. This is not legal advice; Oregon buyers should check with a lawyer before skipping registration.
Sources: Solicitor General D. John Sauer's letter to Congress, as reported by Breitbart News and BizPac Review, October 1-2, 2026; CBS News, September 17, 2026; Silencer Shop Foundation, August 6, 2026; Wiley, via JD Supra; ORS 166.272; the Oregon Firearms Federation alert, October 2026.