Texas ruling lifts registration rules on suppressors, short rifles

A federal ruling that lifts decades-old registration requirements for suppressors, short-barreled rifles and short-barreled shotguns took effect early Thursday after the Justice Department let a court-imposed deadline to seek a stay expire at midnight. U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the Northern District of Texas had given the department one week to request a stay before his decision would take hold.

The ruling consolidates two lawsuits and ends nearly a century of federal registration, background-check and approval requirements under the National Firearms Act for those weapon categories. It followed a 2025 congressional decision to cut the law's $200 transfer and manufacturing taxes on suppressors and short-barreled firearms to zero. Machine guns are not affected and remain under separate federal restrictions.

The injunction is not nationwide; it applies only to the plaintiffs, their members and covered customers in the Texas cases, which were brought by groups including Gun Owners of America, the Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and the Texas State Rifle Association, along with several firearms companies. Gun Owners of America and Silencer Shop said early Thursday that a dealer had completed what they called the first lawful suppressor sale without registration or a background check since 1934.

Gun control groups criticized the outcome. Brady president Kris Brown said the Justice Department "failed to protect common-sense regulations" on the affected weapons, while Giffords said the department had given gun industry executives "exactly what they wanted" instead of defending decades-old safety protections.

Read the full story at newsweek.com.