150,000 NFA Applications Submitted On the First Day of the New Year

On January 1, 2026, the tax stamp fee for suppressors, short barreled rifles (SBRs), short barreled shotguns (SBSs), and any other weapons (AOW) dropped to $0. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) processed an average of 2,500 National Firearms Act (NFA) applications per day before the change; on this day, the volume of applications submitted to the ATF’s NFA Division reached its highest to date.

According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), gun owners submitted over 150,000 NFA applications to the ATF in just one day. The influx of forms submitted through the ATF’s eForms system caused the web-based application to crash, leaving many gun owners waiting for the system to recover. When the system recovered, the applications were processed. Many gun owners have already received their approvals for their NFA items submitted after January 1.

The sharp increase in submitted forms is speculated to be due to gun stores holding ATF Form 4s (for the transfer of NFA items) until the tax stamp fee was reduced from $200 to $0. AmmoLand News contacted multiple gun stores, and all reported they were holding suppressors for customers until the $0 “fee” took effect.

At least a few gun shops started offering to hold suppressors until the new year shortly after President Donald Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill passed Congress last summer. In the reconciliation bill, the tax on all NFA items outside destructive devices (DD) and machine guns had their tax stamp fee zeroed out, leading to an explosion in gun owners purchasing suppressors.

According to the American Suppressor Association (ASA), Americans own 4.4 million suppressors. That number is expected to exceed 5 million once all suppressor sales from 2025 are accounted for. Suppressor ownership has increased by 265% since 2020. This explosion in suppressor ownership is due to gun owners being more educated on laws and facts surrounding suppressors. Many gun owners wrongfully believed suppressors were illegal and were only tools of assassins and spies.

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Thanks to the internet and groups like ASA, these misconceptions are largely extinct from the gun community, although Hollywood still pushes the narrative that suppressors make all firearms silent. The gun-owning community has now accepted suppressors as a vital hearing protection device that prevents hearing damage. Although suppressors do lessen the decibels of a gun, most firearms are still loud when fired.

Anti-gun groups claim that suppressors are “dangerous” because they help criminals commit crimes by fooling gunshot detection systems like ShotSpotter, but these groups fail to mention that suppressors are rarely used in crimes. These groups also do not address claims by New York City and Chicago that systems like ShotSpotter are effective only 9% of the time, despite the company’s claim of a 97% success rate.

With a $0 tax stamp, it has never been easier to buy or make a suppressor. With an approved ATF Form 1 and about $30 of material, any gun owner with a 3D printer can create a fully printed 9mm suppressor. Websites such as the Open Pew Project offer step-by-step guides for registering and printing your homemade 3D-printed suppressor.

About John Crump

Mr. Crump is an NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people from all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons, follow him on X at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.