The Firearms Policy Coalition is pressing more than a dozen states to stop enforcing suppressor rules tied to a federal scheme a Texas judge already struck down, after the ATF told dealers how it will apply that ruling nationwide.
The move lands just days after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives released an open letter and FAQ to federally licensed firearms dealers. The Daily Caller reported that the guidance followed an Aug. 5 decision by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix in the Northern District of Texas. Hendrix, a Trump appointee, held that National Firearms Act registration and processing requirements for suppressors could not stand once the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act cut the transfer tax to $0.
For gun owners, the practical fight is no longer only in Washington. In several states, possessing a suppressor without NFA-style compliance can still mean a state felony. Rights groups now want those statutes gone, or at least frozen, while legislatures catch up.
Judge Hendrix ruled that reducing the transfer tax to zero left the NFA’s registration and processing demands without a constitutional footing for the covered items. The decision hit core paperwork barriers that long defined legal suppressor ownership at the federal level.
ATF Director Robert Cekada said the agency stayed inside its lane. In comments to the Daily Caller News Foundation, he framed the guidance as equal treatment under the law, not a rewise of statutes Congress never repealed.
"The judge, as it relates to other Supreme Court findings, was not able to go beyond his authority. And we’re in the same place."
Cekada added that ATF and the Department of Justice have “very limited authority as it relates to changing, making or repealing federal laws,” and that the path chosen gives Americans equal treatment under the law.
Breitbart reported further detail from Cekada on how far the government extended the win. The Department of Justice declined to appeal. Guidance signed by Attorney General Todd Blanche on October 9, 2026, applied the decision to all law-abiding Americans, not only the original plaintiffs. Effective that date, ATF said it will no longer require NFA approval before making or transferring short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, silencers, or “any other weapon[s]” as defined in 26 U.S.C. § 5845(e). The agency said it will still accept voluntary Form 1 and Form 4 filings where state law still demands that paperwork.
"When the August 5, 2026, ruling came forward it benefited the plaintiffs, which was a very specific group of people. ATF and the Department of Justice looked closely at the ruling and thought the right path for us going forward was to apply it to all law-abiding citizens without requiring them to be a member of any sort of organization or to be a plaintiff in this particular matter."
The ATF open letter went to all FFLs and explained how the bureau would implement federal law after the ruling while avoiding any claim to override state and local rules. A companion FAQ offered more implementation detail. That federal restraint is exactly why state codes now sit in the crosshairs.
FPC letters dated around October 9 went to officials in Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin. The coalition asked those states not to enforce provisions that still condition legal suppressor possession on NFA registration.
The letters put the constitutional problem in plain terms for state officers.
"Must state residents still comply with unconstitutional, enjoined federal regulations to exercise their right to keep and bear the arms under state law?"
FPC also offered help drafting a fix: “In order to protect your citizens’ rights, we respectfully request your Office’s attention and offer FPC’s partnership in crafting a prompt resolution.”
FPC President Brandon Combs did not soft-pedal the demand in a Friday release.
"The states that require compliance with this unconstitutional and now-defunct federal scheme should immediately end enforcement and repeal their laws as soon as possible."
Combs said the group hopes states put liberty first and stand ready to partner, but vowed that FPC and its grassroots network will keep fighting “until people can exercise their rights without fear of arrest or prosecution, full stop.”
On October 11, 2026, the coalition’s X account posted a blunt line: “One fight. Three fronts.”
Four states draw special attention in the reporting because their statutes still tie suppressor possession to NFA compliance under threat of felony charges: Georgia (section 16-11-124), Washington (RCW 9.41.250), Ohio (section 2923.17), and Wisconsin (941.298).
That is the gap ATF’s guidance cannot close. Federal agents may stop demanding registration for covered items, yet a state prosecutor can still treat noncompliance with the old federal hook as a crime. Gun owners in those jurisdictions face a split system: federal practice moving one way, state black-letter law still pointing the other.
Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia told the Daily Caller News Foundation he has already flagged the problem at home.
"I have mentioned to numerous Georgia legislators here in my home state, they’ve got a little bit of work to do and I think that they’ll be successful in that."
Clyde’s point tracks the broader strategy. Even after a federal win, statehouses must scrub cross-references that keep defunct federal paperwork alive as a state offense.
Cody J. Wisniewski, president of the FPC Action Foundation, cast immediate non-enforcement as a bridge while repeal bills move.
"This effort to secure an immediate commitment to non-enforcement is a common-sense way to protect people while these laws work through the legislative process toward what should be their full repeal."
He said the group hopes states meet the request with “consideration for the People and the rights at stake so that we will not need to litigate.” Partnership is on the table if states take “meaningful steps.” If not, Wisniewski was clear about the fallback: “our responsibility is to protect the People and their rights, and we will do what is necessary to fulfill it.”
That posture keeps pressure on attorneys general and governors without waiting for a full legislative calendar. It also signals litigation risk if state officers keep charging conduct the federal government no longer treats as an NFA registration offense.
Not every gun-rights voice expects a rapid national cleanup through federal courts alone. Randy Miyan of Liberal Gun Owners told the Daily Caller News Foundation that conservative jurisprudence often leaves room for state experimentation.
Miyan said the Supreme Court “biases towards letting the states work out their judgements” and that “conservative law biases away from federal dictates and towards local intervention.” He argued American courts have long accepted some restrictions tied to rights, with a “general floor” for states and intervention mainly when state ideas “get too ridiculous.”
“The operating engine of American jurisprudence is fine with restrictions related to rights. Always has been. Always will be. And they will always give the states room to try stuff,” Miyan said.
His comments underscore why FPC is working state by state rather than assuming one district-court ruling automatically revises every code book.
Authorities have not publicly confirmed whether any of the 15 contacted states have answered the FPC letters. Investigators and lawmakers will need to determine how each statute’s NFA cross-reference applies now that ATF has stopped requiring federal approval for silencers and related items in ordinary cases.
State officials also have not said, in the available public record here, whether they will issue their own non-enforcement directives, seek emergency legislative fixes, or defend existing felony frameworks in court. FFLs sitting between federal guidance and state criminal codes need clear instructions from state regulators on what sales and transfers remain lawful without NFA paperwork.
The federal side has drawn a line at equal application of the Hendrix ruling and voluntary forms where states still insist on them. The remaining legal risk lives in state charging decisions and the speed of repeal.
The sequence is now concrete. Congress zeroed the transfer tax in 2025. A federal judge in Texas held the registration machinery unconstitutional without that tax. DOJ declined to appeal. ATF extended the benefit nationwide on October 9, 2026, and told dealers how to operate. FPC answered by demanding that states stop enforcing the old linkage and repeal it.
Georgia’s early legislative conversations, described by Rep. Clyde, offer one path. Other states on the letter list may move slower, or not at all, until a lawsuit forces the issue. Wisniewski’s statements leave that door open without pretending partnership is guaranteed.
For owners, the stakes are direct. A suppressor treated as ordinary under new federal practice can still trigger state felony exposure where codes still incorporate NFA registration. That mismatch is the “next front” rights groups are naming out loud.
Constitutional guarantees mean little if a citizen can clear federal process and still face state handcuffs for the same piece of hardware. State officials who keep the old paperwork trap in force will own the consequences when voters and courts ask why liberty stopped at the state line.
