Reloading Supplies Corp d/b/a Ohio Guns — Saybrook Township, Ohio

September 1, 2026

We are not attorneys. Nothing here is legal advice, and it is not a substitute for talking to a lawyer about your own situation. This is simply an explanation of where our shop stands and why, so that you know what to expect when you walk in our door. If you need legal advice, get a firearms attorney licensed in Ohio.

On August 5, 2026, Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF — consolidated with Jensen v. ATF — that the National Firearms Act’s registration and approval requirements are unconstitutional as applied to suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and AOWs.

The reasoning is clean. Congress passed the NFA in 1934 under its power to lay and collect taxes, and the Supreme Court upheld it on that basis in Sonzinsky v. United States in 1937. When Congress zeroed out the making and transfer taxes on those items effective January 1, 2026, the tax that justified the registration scheme stopped existing. A tax that collects nothing is not a tax. The court held that what was left exceeds Congress’s enumerated powers.

That is the biggest hit the NFA has taken in ninety-two years. We are glad it happened, and we want it to hold.

But we think it is premature to change how we do business, and we want to tell you exactly why.

Some of the excitement over this ruling is aimed at a problem that Congress already solved eight months ago.

• The tax stamp is already $0. It has been since January 1, 2026. The $200 is gone. That was the expensive part, and it is not coming back under either scenario.

• Approvals are fast now. Electronic Form 4 processing has collapsed the old wait. We are seeing approvals in days, not the months everyone remembers from a few years ago.

• We have the network built. Dealers who have been doing this for years already have the systems, the relationships, and the records in place. That machinery works.

So the practical question is not “months of waiting versus walking out today.” It is “a few days versus walking out today” — and in exchange for those few days, you get a suppressor whose paperwork is unambiguous in every state, at every traffic stop, in every estate, forever.

We think that is a good trade. And we think anyone taking a suppressor home on a 4473 alone right now is accepting several open legal questions in exchange for a few days. That may turn out fine. It may not. We are not willing to make that decision on your behalf without telling you what is in it.

1. The ruling did not repeal the NFA. The statute is still on the books, word for word. A court cannot delete a law. It can only bar the government from enforcing it against specific people.

2. The relief is limited to the parties, not to a place. This is the most misunderstood part. The injunction binds ATF and DOJ everywhere in the country — but only as to the plaintiffs, their current and future members, and the customers of the commercial plaintiffs. Ohio’s absence from the case does not put Ohioans outside the ruling. Being a non-member does.

3. In Ohio, it is still a felony. Ohio Revised Code 2923.11 classifies a suppressor as “dangerous ordnance.” The exemption that makes civilian ownership lawful — R.C. 2923.17(C)(5) — runs through registration in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record. Take a suppressor home with no NFRTR entry, and that exemption does not apply to you. That is a fifth-degree felony under Ohio law, entirely independent of what any federal court said. Senate Bill 214 would fix it by striking suppressors from the dangerous-ordnance list. It passed the Ohio Senate 31–1 on March 25, 2026, had House committee hearings in June, and has not been enacted. Until the Governor signs it, this is another convincing reason for our position.

4. The government has not appealed — but it also has not waived. DOJ let the seven-day stay lapse without seeking an extension and has not filed a notice of appeal. The deadline is October 5, 2026. ATF Director Robert Cekada has publicly said ATF is following the order and will not take enforcement action against protected parties inconsistent with it. We take him at his word. But that is an enforcement posture, not a change in the law.

5. There is no mechanism for a dealer to verify membership. If we relied on the injunction, we would have to establish that you were a covered member at the moment of transfer. ATF has published no form, no proof standard, and no guidance on what that record should look like. We would be inventing a compliance file to a standard that has not been written, knowing a different one may be published later.

6. Nobody knows what happens if a membership lapses. Possession of an unregistered NFA firearm is a continuing offense, not a one-time act at the counter. If your coverage under the injunction comes from an association membership, the honest answer is that no one has resolved what happens to you when that membership expires. There is a reasonable argument that a lawful acquisition cannot be undone by a lapse. There is no ruling saying so.

7. A future administration can change its mind. Non-enforcement is a policy, not a precedent. What one administration declines to prosecute, the next one can revisit — and because DOJ did not appeal, there is no appellate ruling anywhere protecting anyone outside this case. The federal statute of limitations gives the government five years from the date of a transfer.

8. The registry does not have a way to close the loop. When a suppressor transfers on a Form 4, that is what tells ATF to move it off our books and onto yours. Without it, the federal registry still shows the item in our inventory after you have taken it home. ATF has not told the industry how to resolve that.

9. Machine guns and destructive devices are not covered at all. Their taxes were never zeroed, so the reasoning in this case does not reach them and nothing about them has changed. Short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and AOWs are a different story — their taxes were zeroed alongside suppressors, and the ruling covers them. But for SBRs and SBSs there is a separate obstacle the court did not touch: 18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(4) independently bars a licensed dealer from transferring one to a non-licensee without authorization, and that provision comes from the Gun Control Act, not the NFA. Knocking out the NFA registration requirement does not clear it.

We will continue processing suppressor transfers on Form 4s.

We will change that when three things are true: the appeal window closes on October 5 with no notice of appeal, ATF issues guidance telling dealers how to handle the records, and Ohio enacts SB 214. We are watching all three, and we will tell you the day it changes.

This is not caution for its own sake. A single willful violation can start license revocation proceedings against us, and a shop that loses its license cannot serve anyone. We would rather be the dealer who is still here in five years with your paperwork in order.

• Buy your suppressor now. The stamp is free and the wait is short. There is no reason to sit on the sidelines.

• Join Gun Owners of America. It is $25 a year, and the injunction covers current and future members. It costs you nothing to be positioned for the day this opens up, and it supports the organization that won this case.

• Call your state representative about SB 214. It passed the Senate 31–1. It is sitting in the Ohio House. This is the piece that matters most to Ohioans, and it is the piece we can actually influence.

Questions? Come see us. We would rather talk it through in person than have you make this call off a social media post.

Daryl Upole

President

Reloading Supplies Corp d/b/a Ohio Guns

Saybrook Township, Ohio

This position reflects our understanding as of September 1, 2026. We will update it as the law changes.