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!
I do not know who the WLP is ???
Wayne La Pierre, brother.
Thank you that makes sense
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 »
I shouldn’t predict, but I’m thinking bacon @ $15 Lbs, canned corn @ $5, and gasoline @ $13 gal by the election. The only way a democrat could win is by election fraud. I could be wrong.
Election Fraud does not exist just ask Willam Barr or Horwitz or any democratic. For that matter anyone in washington who is keeping their heads down for fear of attack from the democratic elite. I can speak from a position of reality being in the beef poultry pork cattle business. There are going to be some high prices out there. Today whole chickens cost shipped dock east coast 1.69lb to a distributor. The avian flu has struck early before the migration and the chicken growers are having to Kill whole flocks so are the turkey producers . Keep in mind… Read more »
Slab bacon 4.94lb 1 lb bacon 4.69lb could not tell you about the canned corn, cooking oil 55.00 per gal
Fish Seafood first let’s talk sustainability how can farm raised fish raised in Peru flown in on a Jet or shipped in on a container across oceans burning fossil fuels be sustainable.
Going to you local dock buying the catch of the day that works support local farmers and growers only eat what is in season. The lie gets bigger everyday.
Fish Seafood first let’s talk sustainability how can farm raised fish raised in Peru flown in on a Jet or shipped in on a container across oceans burning fossil fuels be sustainable.
Going to you local dock buying the catch of the day that works support local farmers and growers only eat what is in season. The lie gets bigger everyday.
The rest is waiting for approval
the globalism is UN sustainable power and control is the goal no bread let them eat cake
WB;
“The only way a democrat could win is by election fraud.”
They also import millions of new voters and gerrymander voting precincts. I’m sure there are a lot of others as well. Now if they could only get their version of “voter rights” passed (no voter ID) I think they’d have it sewn up! Why should anyone have to show an ID just to vote a few dozen times?
True and good humor, too!
With November 2021 election, they’ve pretty much perfected their election techniques. I’m sure necessary tweaking has been under way, and hordes of new “southerner” voters being brought on board just in time. And, not a single shot fired in defense of freedom….yet.
constitution does not grant the rights it forbids government from infringing on them
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?