Earlier this month, the ATF rejected 847 pending Form 1s– the paperwork needed to legally “make” a registered NFA item such as a suppressor, SBR, or SBS.
The reason for the heartbreak is that the applicants had listed that they intended to use some sort of solvent trap to create a legal suppressor. Provided you don’t live in a state where suppressors are illegal (there are only eight of them ) and you are legally able to possess a firearm, nothing is barring the self-manufacture of “silencers” for personal use.
Going past the 847 rejections, ATF also notified 3,000 other applicants with pending Form 1s for making suppressors that they had to supply additional information and details about the material and construction process used in making these items.
Keep in mind that possession of what the regulator considers “suppressor parts” without a signed and approved Form 1 is illegal and can result in 10 years in federal prison. Google the Fifth Amendment on this one.
To fire back on ATF’s new anti-suppressor-making spree, about half of Congress– you know which half– have written letters to the agency in the past week demanding answers by the end of the month.
