Now every gun shop and patron will be treated like a winner of the landmark court case in which a judge overturned parts of the National Firearms Act.
That’s because the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced Friday that it will no longer apply the layers of paperwork and registry the federal National Firearms Act (NFA) required for making and transferring short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, silencers and certain other weapons.
“It’s one of the biggest victories against federal gun control in American history; so we’re pretty happy with it,” Mark Jones, Wyoming resident and national director of Gun Owners of America, told Cowboy State Daily on Friday.
By passing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer, Congress had removed the special taxes from those items. And that gouged the NFA’s ability to regulate them, since the NFA is a taxing law, a Texas judge ruled in August, in the case of Silencer Shop v. ATF.
Wyoming was one of the plaintiffs arguing for greater gun freedoms in the case.
But the judge’s ruling only benefitted the case plaintiffs, and it was unclear if the Wyoming Attorney General’s participation meant that Wyoming gun owners, makers, sellers and buyers would also benefit from the ruling.
Gun groups warned firearms marketers against taking the risk and potentially bringing criminal charges, which could result in up to 10 years in federal prison, $10,000 in fines and the loss of gun rights for life.
The Wyoming Attorney General's Office had asked the judge to clarify whom the ruling protected.
Wyoming’s two U.S. Senators, John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis, both signed an Aug. 11 letter along with 45 other members of Congress, urging the Trump administration not to appeal the ruling.
They also asked Trump’s Department of Justice to apply it nationally through rulemaking.
The ATF’s Friday letter does that.
“Effective October 9, 2026, ATF will no longer require individuals to seek ATF approval under the NFA before making or transferring short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, silencers” and certain other weapons, the open letter says. “ATF will also no longer require such items to be registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer record.”
But, the letter warned, this rule change doesn’t curb the Gun Control Act of 1968 from requiring the normal recordkeeping and background checks already associated with other guns.
It also doesn’t override any state bans on short-barreled rifles and the other NFA-targeted guns.
Go Forth, Wyoming
Wyoming’s laws make it one of the easiest states in which to implement the ATF’s new rule, David Kopel, a senior fellow at the University of Wyoming College of Law Firearms Research Center, said Friday.
“Because unlike some states, such as Colorado, Wyoming doesn’t tie the legality, possession of any of these items to compliance with the National Firearms Act,” said Kopel. “So people in Wyoming can go ahead straight forward.”
But, Kopel added, people should still recognize that the new presidential administration in two years could change the rule.
The new president “could even make the possession of these unregistered items illegal and not give people any amnesty period, even to register,” he said.
So, added Kopel, gun shops be wary of overstocking short-barreled rifles into that future timeframe.
“A lot of the people running for president hate gun owners in general,” he said. “Or they’re subservient to Bloomberg and similar lobbies that hate gun ownership and just want gun ownership eliminated.”
Gun Owners Of America
Jones noted, conversely, that the future administration can revert the rules and enforce them against nearly everyone, but the court order still protects members of Gun Owners of America, since that group is one of the protected plaintiffs.
“Well obviously we are thrilled” with the letter, said Jones. “It’s a big victory for our members and supporters because we put a lot of effort and money into this lawsuit and we couldn’t have done it without them.”
A long road still lies ahead, he said.
“We still think the ATF is unconstitutional. We still want to see it abolished, and we still want to see the entire NFA abolished.”
The judge’s order — and the ATF’s letter — did not remove the NFA’s restrictions on machineguns and explosives.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
