Ohio SB 214 Goes to DeWine: Suppressors, SBRs Off the List

Last updated November 2026 · By Nick Hall, NFA owner who has followed Ohio SB 214 from its 31 to 1 Senate vote to the governor’s desk

Quick take: Ohio lawmakers just sent Governor Mike DeWine a bill that takes suppressors, short-barreled rifles and short-barreled shotguns out of the state’s dangerous ordnance law. If it becomes law, owning one in Ohio stops depending on a federal registration that ATF no longer requires.

• What happened: On November 10, 2026, the Ohio House passed Substitute Senate Bill 214 by 69 to 27 and the Senate concurred by 21 to 9.
• Why it matters: Ohio now treats an unregistered suppressor, SBR or SBS as dangerous ordnance, and possessing one is a fifth-degree felony.
• What’s next: DeWine has ten days, Sundays excepted, from the day the bill is presented to him to sign it or veto it.
• Who to watch: Governor DeWine, and then the 90-day clock that starts once the signed law is filed with the Secretary of State.

In March this was a suppressor bill, and the Ohio Senate passed it 31 to 1. On Tuesday it came back from the House with short-barreled rifles and shotguns added, and the same chamber split 21 to 9 along party lines. That vote tells you what the fight was about. The bill text tells you what Ohio owners actually get, so I read the version the House passed line by line.

Table of Contents

What Ohio SB 214 Actually Changes

The long title says it plainly: the bill amends four sections of the Revised Code “to remove firearm mufflers and suppressors and sawed-off firearms from the classification of dangerous ordnance.” Those are sections 1533.04, 2923.11, 2923.12 and 2923.17. You can read the struck lines yourself in the version as passed by the House.

Three edits do the work. In section 2923.11, the line “Any firearm muffler or suppressor” is struck from the list of dangerous ordnance. The whole definition of a “sawed-off firearm” goes too, and “Any automatic or sawed-off firearm” becomes “Any automatic firearm.”

That definition is the one Ohio used for SBRs and SBSs: “a shotgun with a barrel less than eighteen inches long, or a rifle with a barrel less than sixteen inches long, or a shotgun or rifle less than twenty-six inches long overall.” Once it is gone, barrel length alone no longer makes a rifle or shotgun dangerous ordnance in Ohio.

The third edit is for hunters. Section 1533.04 already lets a licensed hunter use a suppressor on a legal hunting gun, but only “provided that the person is authorized to possess the suppressor under state and federal laws and has registered the suppressor” under the National Firearms Act. The bill deletes that condition, and it deletes the matching hunting exemption in 2923.17(C)(8) because it no longer has anything to exempt.

Here is what that means in plain terms. The Legislative Service Commission’s analysis says that under the bill “a person is no longer prohibited from acquiring, having, carrying, or using a sawed-off firearm or a firearm muffler or suppressor, regardless of whether an exemption applies.”

The 31 to 1 Bill That Became a 21 to 9 Bill

Senator Kyle Koehler (R-Springfield) introduced SB 214 on June 3, 2025, as a suppressor bill only. It passed the Senate 31 to 1 on March 25, 2026. “In reality, a suppressor is no more dangerous than my noise canceling earbuds that I wear on my farm while using a chainsaw,” Koehler said in his office’s release after that vote.

Then it sat in the House Public Safety Committee from May 13. The push to widen it came after ATF’s October 9 change, which we covered when Attorney General Andy Wilson asked lawmakers to fix the gap in our story on the Ohio AG’s suppressor and SBR letter. Wilson told legislators that if they saw the registration requirements as “archaic remnants of an overly restrictive past,” it was time to drop them.

On November 10 the committee reported a substitute bill, 9 to 2, and the Legislative Service Commission’s synopsis lists one change from the Senate version: it “Removes a sawed-off firearm from the classification of dangerous ordnance.” The full House passed it 69 to 27 the same day, with six Democrats voting yes, and the Senate concurred before the day was out.

The concurrence vote is the tell. All 21 yeas were Republicans and all 9 nays were Democrats, and seven of those nine had voted for the suppressor-only bill in March. Suppressors were never the sticking point. Short barrels were.

What SB 214 Does Not Touch

Machine guns stay put. “Any automatic firearm” is still dangerous ordnance, and so are explosive devices, rocket launchers, grenades and the rest of that list. The 2923.17(C)(5) exemption for owners of items “registered in the national firearms registration and transfer record” stays in the code, and it still matters for those items.

Federal law doesn’t change either. The National Firearms Act is still on the books, and the Commission’s own analysis notes that “under federal law, registration is still required.” What changed in October is enforcement. ATF’s Open Letter calls its move a “change in enforcement policy,” and its FAQ warns that “Material changes in legal or factual circumstances could cause NFA enforcement to resume.” Our breakdown of the ATF NFA guidance walks through the limits.

So SB 214 closes the state half of the problem and leaves the federal half where ATF put it. The Gun Control Act rules stay in place, prohibited persons still can’t own any of this, and ATF still tells SBR and SBS owners to file a Form 20 before crossing state lines. Ohio law also stops at the state line, so an unregistered can in Ohio is still a question for every state you drive into.

The DeWine Clock and the 90-Day Wait

The bill now goes to Governor Mike DeWine. Under Article II, Section 16 of the Ohio Constitution, if a bill “is not returned by the governor within ten days, Sundays excepted, after being presented to him, it becomes law in like manner as if he had signed it,” unless an adjournment of the General Assembly prevents its return. The clock starts on presentment, not on the vote, and as of Wednesday morning the legislature’s bill page still listed the November 10 votes as the latest action.

A veto can be overridden by three-fifths of the members elected to each chamber. DeWine has not said publicly what he will do, and I am not going to guess.

Even a signature doesn’t flip the switch right away. Article II, Section 1c says no law “shall go into effect until ninety days after it shall have been filed by the governor in the office of the secretary of state,” and SB 214 carries no emergency clause. Its last section only repeals the old versions of the four statutes, so the earliest this can take effect is February 2027.

Until then, current law runs the show. Possessing dangerous ordnance is a fifth-degree felony that carries up to $2,500 in fines and a prison term of 6 to 12 months, according to the bill’s fiscal note, and carrying it concealed is a fourth-degree felony with up to $5,000 and 6 to 18 months.

What Ohio Suppressor and SBR Owners Should Do Now

Don’t treat a bill on the governor’s desk as a law in the code. If you want a suppressor, SBR or SBS in Ohio before this takes effect, the federal form is still the thing Ohio’s exemption checks for. The tax is $0 and ATF still processes applications, so file it and wait for the approval. And don’t cut a barrel or pin a stock today on the strength of a headline about Columbus.

If you already file, keep filing until the law actually takes effect. Mine stay registered either way, because that paper is the one thing a future ATF would accept if enforcement comes back. We covered the bill’s first life in our August look at SB 214, back when it was only about cans.

The fiscal note says these cases are rare anyway. It counts 26 incidents of possessing dangerous ordnance reported to Ohio’s incident-based crime reporting system in 2025, a number that “may include firearm mufflers or suppressors,” and says one person was sent to prison in fiscal 2023 with that as the most serious charge.

Rare charges, real felonies. Ninety days after DeWine files it, if he does, Ohio stops caring whether ATF has your name.

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Related Reading

• Ohio Gun Laws Explained
• Suppressor Laws in Ohio (2026)
• Florida AG: SBRs and SBSs Legal Without NFA Registration
• Alaska AG: State Suppressor and SBR Law Needs a Fix
• Suppressor Laws by State (2026)
• How to Buy a Suppressor