ATF Director Says Suppressor and SBR Transfer Guidance Could Land Within Weeks, and Dealers Moving Cans on a 4473 Will Not Be Cited

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

WASHINGTON, DC — ATF Director Robert Cekada told a room full of federal firearms licensees that the agency’s guidance on transferring suppressors and short-barreled firearms under the NFA injunction is not finished, but it is close, and he expects it to be released in the next couple of weeks.

Cekada made the remarks at “The Briefing,” an FFL compliance event hosted by FastBound, as reported by AmmoLand. He said ATF is only one of three stakeholders in the guidance. The other two are the Department of Justice and the White House. AmmoLand’s own sources believe the White House is the one holding up release.

That timeline matters because the counter has been frozen for weeks. Gun Owners of America told its members on August 25 that it won its challenge to the National Firearms Act’s registration requirements on August 5, and that gun shops across the country were refusing to transfer unregistered suppressors and short-barreled firearms until ATF said something. GOA’s Erich Pratt wrote that he ran into it at his own local shop. Some FFLs were proceeding, GOA said, while others held off out of fear of consequences. Cekada’s remarks came seven weeks after the date GOA gives for the ruling, and they are the first public signal from ATF on when direction is coming.

The single most useful thing Cekada said was about inspections. AmmoLand asked him directly how industry operations inspectors should treat a dealer they find transferring suppressors on a Form 4473. Cekada was adamant that an FFL doing so will not be cited for a violation. Former NFA Chief Steve Albro later echoed him, saying ATF’s policy is to presume every suppressor transferred on a 4473 was legally transferred. For the dealer who has been holding cans in the safe because he did not want to bet his license on his reading of an injunction, that is the answer he has been waiting for, and it came from the director’s mouth in front of the industry. Albro also put a number on the stakes: more than 2.3 million suppressors sold this year.

An injunction, in plain terms, is a court order telling the government to stop enforcing something against the people covered by the order. Cekada said the guidance is meant to cover as many Americans as possible while protecting the gun owners it does cover from future anti-gun administrations. AmmoLand reports ATF will most likely not expand the injunction to a universal level.

Short-barreled rifles and shotguns get their own fix. AmmoLand reports those items are covered by the injunction, but dealers have still been running them on a Form 4 because the Gun Control Act separately requires notifying the attorney general of the transfer. The guidance will “fix” that carve-out, in AmmoLand’s telling, which the outlet reads as SBRs and SBSs moving on a 4473 alone. Cekada said these guns, and long guns generally, are not an issue, and he called out groups whose goal is to demonize them.

The guidance is also expected to address interstate travel with covered NFA items. Cekada said it may address the 15 states that require buyers of some covered items to comply with federal law, though ATF Chief Legal Counsel Robert Lieder clarified that ATF cannot force those states to take the bureau’s advice. If you live in one of those states, the federal guidance may not settle your question.

Several other items surfaced during the day, per AmmoLand. Lieder said ATF is still working on NFA rules covering suppressors, SBRs, SBSs, and AOWs, not to undercut the injunction but to backstop it in case a future administration tries to change course. Form 4473 is being revised: the “County” box goes away, changes are being made to comply with court rulings including the Supreme Court’s Hemani decision on the marijuana-user prohibition, and the new form will not be out until after the holiday season. Lieder said ATF is updating its systems to allow handgun and handgun ammunition sales to 18- to 20-year-olds following a DOJ Office of Legal Counsel opinion the bureau was not told about in advance, with guidance in the coming weeks, while machine guns and destructive devices are likely to stay at 21. On forced reset triggers, Cekada said some on the market are true FRTs and some are machine guns under the statutory definition, and he declined to name which.

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Until the document is actually out, call your dealer before you drive over. Ask whether the shop is transferring on a 4473 now or waiting for the paper. The director has said a shop that transfers now will not be cited. Whether your dealer is willing to take his word for it before it is in writing is his call, and after years of watching ATF punish paperwork mistakes, plenty of them will wait the couple of weeks.

I will continue tracking ATF’s guidance and will cover the document itself when it is released.