Welcome to the Live to Shoot podcast. My name is Jeff Dowdle, and I've been a licensed firearm dealer for the last 19 years, and this podcast is about all things related to the Second Amendment, as well as anything else going on in the world, sports story, or anything else I might find interesting. So welcome, welcome, welcome. We have guidance. We have guidance. I s- I had a podcast episode yesterday morning that said we had not got any guidance, that we were told that we would be getting guidance, and we got guidance. We got guidance on how to transfer NFA items, suppressors, SBRs in particular, under the new current injunction that is in place, and we, we got that. So yesterday afternoon, the Department of Justice dropped what is called an open letter to all federal firearm licensees and the public regarding the National Firearms Act, making and transfer requirements, certain firearms and devices. And accompanying that was a, w- a document called the FAQs to accompany the open letter regarding the National Firearms Act, m- making and transferring for certain firearms and devices. Here, we'll, we'll cut to the chase. You can do silencers on a 4473. You can do the suppressors. I said silencers, I should... But it is a suppressor. Sometimes it's just easier to say. Now, this FAQ has 24 questions and answers in that. We'll go to the one, to me, that was one of the most important ones, and it was the ATF response to the district court ruling for non-parties. So if you are not a specific party to the injunction, what is it g- what are they gonna do? Because there's a lot of gray area about who are the parties, so I just want to focus on, let's just say, let's just, just assume, outside of silencer shop, the few people named let's just assume that everybody's a non-party. The question is, is what about persons not covered by the injunction? Will ATF apply the ruling nationally? And the answer is yes. For various policy reasons, ATF will cease enforcement on October 9th, 2026 of the following NFA provisions as applied only to short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, silencers, and any other weapon as defined in 26 USC 5845E. And this is what they're ceasing. The requirement to apply and obtain prior approval to make NFA arms, the requirement of those engaged in the business to register NFA firearms within 24 hours of making, the requirement to apply and obtain s- prior approval to transfer NFA firearms, the registration, the requirement to register a firearm in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, the various provisions on marking, receiving, transferring, and processing unregistered NFA arms other than the, the prohibitions in 26, the prohibition against transporting unregistered NFA firearms in interstate commerce, and the NFA requirement to mark all NFA firearms. Any other NFA pr- provision specifically enjoined by the district court's judgment. So that is how they're doing it. Then there's a lot of other questions and answers in here, various ones. I will put the link to these documents in the show notes if you want to read them. Now, it is optional. You can choose to go ahead and register and do the Form 1, Form 4 process as we have always done. You say why would I want to do that if I don't have to?" Here is why you may want to do that, and it is the very last question in their frequently asked question document. And it says, "If I hold an unregistered zero-tax firearm pursuant to the injunction or the, or the enforcement discretion policy," this is all the enforcement discretion policy, "will I be grandfathered if the legal circumstances change? Will I have an opportunity to register my firearm?" So they're asking, "Hey, if something changes with the injunction the Supreme Court rules otherwise there, something happens get, I don't know, somebody else appeals or other, in other cases, what happens if we get a new, new administration in?" Because again, this is what is called enforcement discretion policy. It's not a change in the law. Nothing has changed a- as it pertains to the law. There was a court ruling that interpreted the law and said, the judge said, "I am saying you can't do this anymore because I don't find that law constitutional." But nothing's changed about the law. The law has not been changed. So it still actually applies But now it's how you enforce it. And the answer by the Department of Justice says, "Federal law does not generally permit subsequent registration of unregistered NFA items, nor their provisions, nor are there provisions that would automatically grandfather unregistered NFA firearms. There are narrow exceptions that exist at the Attorney General's discretion. The NFA permits the Attorney General to hold an amnesty for up to ninety days to fa- to facilitate registration of unregistered firearms. The Internal Revenue Code also has provisions authorizing certain forbearances of taxing provisions. The Attorney General is not required, however, to hold an amnesty or to provide forbearance. That decision will be made by the Attorney General at the time of the for the time the injunction is dissolved." So they're saying there's no amnesty if there's no ability to go register these. So if something changes, and depending on who is in power and who that administration is, they could come and void all this and potentially come after all of us for having unregistered NFA firearms. Would, can that happen? I don't know. We've seen crazier things out of the government, out of the ATF. So that is a fair warning that people need to understand that there is still, reasons why you could do a Form 4 and register the firearm for overcaution and overabundance. But today, if you don't want to, you don't have to, and there could be dealers that could be even extremely more conservative and say, "I'm only gonna do Form 4s." The other thing is that you still have to be an have an SOT. You still, not every dealer can, can do this. If they are not an SOT holder and have, and have paid their f- their, their tax, they can't do that. It's just that has not changed. If you're not gonna do Form 4473s for suppressors, I just would say I'm not doing them anymore because the pressure most people are gonna understand will wanna do Form 4 4473s. So that is the guidance. I'll link these. Comment if you've got questions, email me, let me know. I'll do my best to do it. I'm sure more will be coming out on this as we go over the next few days, but that is the guidance that we have gotten. It, it's pretty good guidance. It's pretty open and shut and meaning that there's no, i, I don't have to go verify that people are members of GOA and et cetera and all that. So that is good for me and good for all of us. Take care. Have a good rest of your weekend, and go buy some suppressors.
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