Silencer Saturday #431: What Other NFA Rules Could Be Changed?

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome back to TFB’s Silencer Saturday, brought to you by Yankee Hill Machine, manufacturers of the new Victra 20-gauge shotgun suppressor. Last week, we talked about the current batch of proposed rules that will impact the NFA. All of those new rules looked very favorable to NFA enthusiasts and dealers. So if we can be optimistic, what else could the ATF change on its own accord without Congress?

Silencer Saturday @ TFB:

• Silencer Saturday #429: New Things At NRAAM 2026 
• Silencer Saturday #428: Should You Run A Silencer In Competition?
• Silencer Saturday #427: 2026 ATF NFA Data 
• Silencer Saturday #426: Mid-bore Rifle Silencers
• Silencer Saturday #425: Precision Armament TiTrex First Look

What Are Silencer “Parts?”

The NFA definition of “firearm silencer or muffler” 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.”

This statutory definition has caused some confusion in recent years. An ATF open letter to FFLs from 2023 explained the agency’s position that many items marketed as solvent traps are silencers. This led to the ATF practice of requiring additional information, such as pictures of your machining equipment, to prove that a silencer is being built from scratch instead of with any type of pre-made part. An ATF policy clarification could set standards around what types of dual-use parts can legally be sold and then later used to fabricate a form one silencer

There is also the infamous decision that wipes used in Dead Air’s silencers are silencer parts. This definition's application to wipes in particular is difficult, as wipes are intended for use in firearm silencers. However, they are not typically necessary to assemble or fabricate the silencer, even in a suppressor that uses wipes as the primary baffle system. The body of the silencer itself and the front and rear caps still provide noise suppression on some level without wipes. In many modern silencers, wipes are an optional addition to add more suppression than the baffle stack provides on its own in that particular use case. An ATF opinion defining wipes as a consumable item or accessory rather than a part makes sense. This would also be a return to the ATF’s position in a 1999 letter, which stated that wipes were not silencer parts.

The ATF could also reassess its position on suppressor-compatible muzzle devices. At present, those muzzle devices are a silencer part unless the silencer manufacturer sells a non-silencer thing that attaches to that mounting system. This is why many manufacturers offer things like blast shields and brakes that fit their muzzle devices. There may be some consumer demand for those items, but they are often a workaround to keep the muzzle devices legal. An ATF policy that draws the distinction between mounting a silencer and assembling or fabricating a silencer could sidestep this issue and make things easier for the industry.

12-Gauge Shotguns As Destructive Devices

This may be Silencer Saturday, but new opportunities for NFA deregulation more broadly are probably interesting to our readership. Firearms with bore diameters larger than half an inch are generally classified as destructive devices. There are some exceptions, like hunting cartridges, line throwing, and most shotguns. But there are some shotguns that the ATF decided should be destructive devices, most famously the Street Sweeper and USAS-12. The ATF ruling on the topic explains:

“Held: The Striker-12/Streetsweeper is a shotgun with a bore of more than one-half inch in diameter, which is not particularly suitable for sporting purposes. The weight, size, bulk, designed magazine capacity, configuration, and other factors indicate that the Striker12/Streetsweeper is a military-type shotgun, as opposed to a shotgun particularly suitable for sporting purposes. Accordingly, the Striker-12/Streetsweeper is a destructive device as that term is used in 26 U.S.C. § 5845(f)(2).”

This definition is hard to square with successive ATF decisions around other shotguns. For example, the Saiga 12 is also a large, heavy shotgun that fires from an extended magazine and is unsuited for traditional hunting purposes. Unlike the Striker or USAS, the Saiga was not classified as a destructive device.

The entire paradigm of having a sporting purposes test also struggles in light of the Bruen decision, which explicitly explained that firearms are not just for sporting purposes anymore. The ATF could adopt a new policy position that generally exempts all shotguns from destructive device regulation. This could even be a retroactive shift, which would remove guns like the Striker 12 and USAS from the NFA registry. While this sounds like an unusual step, the ATF has done it before, specifically in the context of pre-1898 short barrel rifles. Could this happen for shotguns, too? Who knows.

Salvaging Machine Gun Receivers?

In the ATF’s opinion, the only way to make a fully-automatic firearm into a non-machine gun is the destruction of the receiver. The NFA Handbook sets out this position fairly clearly, even though it is not a document with binding legal authority. In the ATF's view, once a receiver has been a machine gun, the only way to make it not a machine gun is destruction.

The NFA handbook outlines approved methods for destroying these receivers on firearms like the FAL, Browning belt-fed machine gun, and H&K firearms. But what if it didn't have to be this way? It is possible that the ATF could adopt a new guidance position with approved methods for taking machine guns out of the classification without simple destruction.

For example, once the auto sear is removed from an M16, perhaps inserting and welding plugs in the auto sear holes would be sufficient. Functionally, this is no different than many of the lower-shelf AR lowers on the market today. Both a downconverted M16 receiver and a standard AR-15 receiver would require drilling a hole to convert them to a machine gun. If an AR-15 receiver in this configuration is not readily convertible into a machine gun, why would an M16 receiver, which would require the same work, still be readily convertible to be a machine gun? This makes a little sense. Re-drilling a hole exactly where a plug has been fixed in place may even be more difficult than drilling a virgin receiver.

This approach would open up many interesting opportunities in the surplus firearm world. Here in the US, the Civilian Marksmanship Program has made a name for itself selling guns like the M1 carbine and M1 Garand out of government stocks to the public. But the government is running out of non fully automatic guns to sell. If there were an approved method for changing surplus M16 or M16A1 rifles into civilian legal semi-automatic rifles without destroying and replacing the receiver, this could be a very exciting opportunity. Simply remove the auto sear, permanently plug the holes in a manner of the ATF's choosing, and swap the trigger out for a standard trigger pack instead of a machine gun trigger set. Voila, you now have an authentic M16 without any regulatory hurdles.

Similarly, the M14 would be a candidate for such a conversion. If there were an ATF-approved method to permanently block the automatic selector switch hole and perhaps swap a trigger part, the shooting public could have access to M14 rifles that otherwise would be languishing in a warehouse somewhere. The best thing about this idea is that it only requires the ATF to change its mind and adopt appropriate guidance. This would not even require a new administrative rule, though one would be nice.

Conclusion

Will any of the changes happen? I don’t know, but I can hope. These are exciting times that these conversations are even plausible. We will see you back here next week.

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