U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- As we reported last week, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“ATF”) denied approximately 850 Form 1 applications for prospective makers of suppressors on February 28. These denials were apparently made due to a change in ATF policy regarding certain devices that ATF claims are in reality suppressor “parts kits.”
The Form 1 application (technically ATF Form 5320.1) is the Application to Make and Register a Firearm. This is the application form that applicants who are not licensed to manufacture National Firearms Act (“NFA”) regulated firearms must use to legally create an NFA firearm.
Under federal law, firearm suppressors, called firearm silencers or firearm mufflers in federal statute, are treated legally the same as other firearms and subject to the registration and taxation requirements of the NFA.
The new change in policy was due to ATF’s interpretation of the definition of “firearm silencer or firearm muffler” which is “any device for silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of a portable firearm, including any combination of parts, designed or redesigned, and intended for use in assembling or fabricating a firearm silencer or firearm muffler, and any part intended only for use in such assembly or fabrication.”
ATF is specifically concerned with “combination[s] of parts, designed or redesigned, and intended for use in assembling or fabricating a firearm silencer or firearm muffler . . . .” According to ATF, companies who are selling products that can be used for the assembly or fabrication of a silencer must treat those products as if they are already a silencer. The company would need to be a licensed manufacturer, pay a special tax, and the product would need to be transferred on ATF’s Form 4 application, rather than being registered via a Form 1 by the person who intends to use the parts in assembling a functional silencer.
Notably, NRA-supported legislation would address this definition to eliminate any possibility of these types of interpretations. The Hearing Protection Act (“HPA”), in addition to removing suppressors from the purview of the NFA, would change the definition that is the subject of ATF’s new “interpretation.”
The new definition would change the definition to “mean any device for silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of a portable firearm, including the ‘keystone part’ of such a device.”
It would further define “the term ‘keystone part’ [to] mean[], with respect to a firearm silencer or firearm muffler, an externally visible part of a firearm silencer or firearm muffler, without which a device capable of silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of a portable firearm cannot be assembled, but the term does not include any interchangeable parts designed to mount a firearm silencer or firearm muffler to a portable firearm.”
In essence, these changes would bring suppressors into line with other firearms, where only a single part is the “frame or receiver,” and other parts could easily be bought and sold for repair or replacement.
Unfortunately, HPA currently lacks sufficient votes in both houses of Congress, but gun owners will be given the opportunity this November to elect lawmakers who support the right to keep and bear arms and will put a stop to ATF’s repeated “reinterpretations” of federal law.
About NRA-ILA:
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess, and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org
By leaving WLP in office you HAVE lost all credibility!
Vote in the midterms 2022 republican only The ATF and all the other alphabet governments agencies which were created to remove the freedoms that the constitution grants us. We as a country will need to address this if republicans can manage to control all 3 the congress the senate and oval office in 2024 which is a long way away. We must not allow our country to be locked down again Bidens administration is the most dangerous in our country’s history. The socialist democratic party is in control of all the democrats. The far left the middle and those that… Read more »
Can electronic format be used in filing a Form 1?. Just this morning, parts kit consisting of a pillow case, travel pillow, and mounting zip ties were put in jail at WallyWorld. Mental giant WallyWorlder seemed a little confused. Imagine that…. Asking for a friend.
This article keeps saying “like other firearms”. It’s worth clarifying, a supressor is not a firearm. Not by way of the general definition or the Gun Control Act’s definition.
A supressor is only a firearm by way of odd wordplay in the National Firearms Act. This was done in order to regulate them the same as Title 2 firearms.
I wouldn’t recommend calling things by their wacky legal term unless you clarify that you’re doing so for a reason.
Would you call a muffler an “automobile” because some strange legal definition incorporated it?