On August 5, a federal judge in the Northern District of Texas ruled that the NFA's registration and approval requirements for suppressors, SBRs, and SBSs lost their constitutional footing the moment Congress zeroed out the $200 tax. Two months later, the DOJ has confirmed it won't appeal, and plenty of us are still trying to sort out what we can and can't do at the gun counter. So I called up Owen Miller, Vice President of the American Suppressor Association. Before joining the ASA in 2016, Owen spent more than a decade running compliance at Gemtech, so if anyone can explain where the lines sit right now for owners, manufacturers, and FFLs, it's the guy who used to live and breathe the paperwork.
More TFB Behind the Gun Podcast Episodes:
TFB Behind the Gun #239: Gemtech to Gutting the NFA w/ Owen Miller
In this episode of TFB Behind the Gun, Owen Miller, Vice President of the American Suppressor Association, joins the show to break down the August 2026 ruling in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF. After the One Big Beautiful Bill Act dropped the NFA tax on suppressors, short-barreled rifles, and short-barreled shotguns to $0, the court held that the registration system built to collect that tax no longer had a constitutional basis. Owen explains who the injunction covers and who it doesn't, why machine guns and state suppressor bans are untouched, what the DOJ's decision not to appeal means for the case, and how gun owners, manufacturers, and FFLs should approach transfers while ATF guidance is still pending.
Follow the American Suppressor Association:
Website: https://suppressor.org
Join the ASA: https://americansuppressorassociation.com/join-now
Texas NFA case page: https://suppressor.org/litigation/texas-nfa
X: https://x.com/AmSuppressor
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