Dealers Are Transferring Cans on a 4473 and Passing

Last updated August 2026 · By Nick Hall, NFA owner who has sat through the Form 4 wait four times since 2019

Quick take: Since the stay lifted in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF and Jensen v. ATF, a number of dealers have started moving suppressors on a Form 4473 alone, with no Form 4 and no registration. ATF inspectors have now reviewed those transfers at four dealers and cited none of them. That is not guidance, but it is evidence.

• What happened: ATF inspectors examined 4473-only suppressor transfers at four federal firearms licensees and did not cite the transactions as violations.
• Why it matters: ATF has published no written guidance since the injunction, so dealers have been guessing. An inspection that ends without a citation is the closest thing to an answer anyone has received.
• The limit: The injunction protects named plaintiffs, organisation members and the Silencer Shop Foundation. Jensen plaintiffs have the same protection except for AOWs. It is not a general licence.
• What’s next: Gun Owners of America is pressing ATF and the Justice Department for written scope guidance, which is the only thing that will settle it for the rest of the dealer network.

A court order that nobody acts on is a law review article. A court order that dealers act on, that inspectors then examine and let stand, starts to look like the way things actually work now.

Table of Contents

What the Injunction Covers

A federal judge in Texas enjoined ATF from enforcing the National Firearms Act registration requirements for suppressors, short-barrelled rifles, short-barrelled shotguns and any other weapons. That order came after the transfer and making tax on those items dropped to $0.

The protection is not universal. It reaches the named plaintiffs, the members of the plaintiff organisations, and the Silencer Shop Foundation. Plaintiffs in the companion Jensen case have the same protection with the exception of AOWs.

So the honest description is that a defined group of people are covered, and the boundary of that group is exactly what nobody has written down clearly.

The registration requirement itself sits at 26 U.S.C. 5841, and the argument that carried the day was that the provision was built on Congress’s taxing power. Once the tax went to $0, the constitutional hook went with it. That is the entire reasoning, and it is narrower than most of the headlines suggested.

Four Inspections, No Citations

Since the stay was lifted, a number of federal firearms licensees have started transferring suppressors on a Form 4473, the same form used for an ordinary rifle or handgun, and dropped the Form 4 requirement for buyers they believe are covered.

ATF inspectors have since reviewed those 4473-only transfers at four dealers. None of the transactions were cited as violations. For an agency that has issued no written instruction, declining to cite is a meaningful act.

But it is not the same as permission, and no dealer should read it as one. An inspection outcome binds nothing and creates no precedent.

Why Most Shops Still Will Not Do It

Walk into a typical gun shop and ask whether you can take a can home today, and the answer is almost certainly no. That is not obstinacy. It is arithmetic.

A dealer who guesses wrong about the scope of a federal injunction is not risking a fine. They are risking their licence and potentially a felony, and the upside of being early is one suppressor sale. That asymmetry explains the entire behaviour of the market right now, and it will not change until somebody at ATF or the Justice Department puts the scope of the order in writing.

If you want to understand what the process normally looks like, our guide to buying a suppressor covers the Form 4 route that most shops are still running.

What Gun Owners of America Is Asking For

Gun Owners of America has been updating members on the state of play and pressing for the one thing that would resolve it, which is a written statement from ATF or the Justice Department describing who the injunction covers.

The questions are specific. Does the order protect only named plaintiffs? Every member of the plaintiff organisations, and how does a dealer verify membership at the counter? Every buyer in the district? Every FFL in the country?

Until those are answered, the practical result is a two-tier market where a handful of dealers transfer on a 4473 and everybody else runs paperwork as though nothing happened.

What This Does to Prices and Supply

Suppressor demand was already climbing hard after the tax went to $0, and manufacturers spent the first half of the year adding capacity to chase it. The injunction landed on a market that was running hot before any of this started.

Removing a regulatory bottleneck does not lower prices while demand is spiking and supply is fixed. Expect firmness before you expect bargains, and expect the popular calibres and mounting systems to be the first things that go short.

Our rundown of what a suppressor really costs has the current pricing picture, and the tax line in it is now $0 regardless of how the litigation ends.

The Question Buyers Should Actually Ask

Do not ring your dealer and ask whether the NFA is dead. Nobody can answer that and the question puts them on the defensive.

Ask a narrower one: are you transferring suppressors on a 4473 today, and if so, what basis are you relying on. Most will say no. The ones saying yes will tell you exactly which case they think covers you, and that answer is worth having in your own notes.

And if you already have a Form 4 pending, leave it pending. There is no advantage to withdrawing an application filed under the old rules on the strength of an order that has not been reviewed on appeal.

Four inspections. Zero citations. Still no guidance. The silence is doing the work.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Related Reading

• The best suppressors you can actually buy
• How to buy a suppressor, step by step
• What a suppressor really costs
• How suppressors work
• The NFA injunction that started all of this