A group of gun rights supporters gathered just after midnight on Aug. 13 to celebrate a victory and exploit a lapse in a firearms law that could signal a major shift in how the nation regulates the most dangerous guns and devices available.
Brandon Herrera, a 30-year-old YouTuber and Texas congressional candidate who bills himself as "the AK guy," bought an unregistered silencer, eliciting cheers from fellow enthusiasts at a shop in Leander, Texas.
Gun advocates have long decried the added layers of fees and regulation that apply to devices like suppressors, or silencers that muffle the noise when a gun is fired. This week, a federal injunction took effect, invalidating a narrow portion of the law for the people who sued over it.
Backers of the
challenge called the Aug. 5 injunction a “mortal wound” to the National Firearms Act or NFA. A Texas federal judge stayed his ruling for a week, and, absent an appeal from the Trump administration, the ruling went into effect Aug. 13. The Department of Justice still has two months to appeal and lawyers have not signaled how they'll decide.
“It’s not enough to play defense for our natural God-given, constitutionally guaranteed rights,” Herrera said at Silencer Shop in Leander as he received the first unregistered suppressor from a gun shop in more than 90 years.
Kiersten Pels, a spokesperson for the DOJ, told USA TODAY, “The Department respects Americans’ Second Amendment rights and is currently assessing the impact of the court’s ruling."
The festive mood at the shop in Texas also kicked off a wave of confusion for gun shop owners nationwide. Many said they fielded calls asking about buying suppressors Aug. 13 and had to explain the narrow ruling.
The ruling only applies to plaintiffs in the case – but has gun safety advocates concerned it’s sure to kick off a domino effect of challenges from around the country. Eight states and the District of Columbia have added restrictions banning the private use of silencers; however, silencers remain subject to the NFA restrictions in the other 42 states.
Firearms industry veteran Rob Pincus wrote on social media he wants to see more clarity from the DOJ or ATF about the impact of the Texas ruling. Some organizations have used the ruling as a membership drive since theoretically members or the litigators could be covered. Similarly, specific gun manufacturers that joined the suit, like Palmetto State Armory, are hoping to exploit the narrow ruling.
"This is a BIG Deal…. It is progress… but, it is not at all clear exactly what has happened and there is no doubt things will be made more clear soon," Pincus wrote.
For decades, the National Firearms Act has required a special permit and payment of a $200 fee to obtain a tax stamp (which looks like an ink blot postage stamp) for each device. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act tucked in a provision to lower the fee from $200 to $0. Applicants still must submit fingerprints, a passport-style photo and undergo an enhanced background check.
The Texas judge’s injunction applies to silencers, short-barreled rifles and short-barreled shotguns. The named plaintiff in the case was Stephen Willeford, the man who confronted the mass shooter at a church in Sutherland Springs in 2017 with his own AR-15.
The suit was backed by the Gun Owners of America, which brands itself as a “no compromise” wing of the gun lobby. The organization has said for years it planned to “dismantle the NFA.”
“We promised to keep fighting until these restrictions were gone, and now our members are putting the historic victory into action,” said Erich Pratt, GOA’s senior vice president. “The era of federal registration for unconstitutionally protected arms must end.”
The law changes have prompted some to speculate whether fully automatic machine guns could become legal or more available. But those fall into an additional layer of regulation that would need further challenges. Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Florida, has proposed relaxing those regulations – with the backing of the GOA.
West Virginia and Kentucky have explored state-based registration for machine guns as a workaround to federal law.
Gun safety groups warn of law’s erosion
Leading gun safety groups balked at the decision by the DOJ to let the law lapse.
“Less than a week after Senate Republicans confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general, DOJ has failed to defend a 100-year-old public protection against some of our nation’s deadliest weapons – even as it actively defends this exact same law in other courtrooms,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement.
Brady’s President Kris Brown blamed Blanche and Congress, “who are supposed to serve the American people, not the gun industry’s bottom line.”
And the organization Giffords, named after former Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords, issued a statement from its president, Emma Brown, expressing concern that the devices will be sold and used in crime.
“Congress put these safeguards in place nearly 100 years ago… But now, silencers and dangerous, easily concealable weapons can now easily get into the wrong hands to harm innocent people,” Brown said.
Contributing: Erin Mansfield, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump DOJ lapse in gun law leads to midnight sales
