WASHINGTON, D.C. – On February 28th, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) summarily denied 847 Form 1 applications to make a suppressor because they believed the applicants were using solvent trap kits. On March 3rd, ATF notified thousands of applicants with pending Form 1 suppressor applications that they will be required to provide pictures and descriptions of all parts and components that will be used to make the suppressor, or their application will be disapproved. None of this information is collected or required on the existing Form 1 application.
Despite previously approving thousands of Form 1 applications for individuals and legal entities that have used these kits in recent years, it seems ATF has now decided to change course without any public explanation or justification. What is clear is that ATF has unilaterally decided that the National Firearms Act (NFA) applies to these kits, and therefore any applicant applying to make a suppressor using one might be guilty of a crime.
Rather than publicly explaining their rationale and giving Form 1 applicants time to adjust, ATF has resorted to sending threatening emails to law-abiding Americans who are trying to follow the law – the same way ATF understood the law before March 1, 2022. This type of behind-closed-door rulemaking has to stop.
We are asking that Congress take three actions:
- Demand that ATF stop using secret rulemaking, and instead insist that ATF publish clear, understandable guidance before it attempts to make felons out of ordinary, law-abiding Americans.
- Demand that ATF abide by its previous determinations for tens of thousands of approved Form 1s, and approve all Form 1s submitted prior to March 1, 2022 that include reference to the kits ATF now seeks to outlaw. It is unconscionable for ATF to try to make criminals out of people who received or sought approval to make suppressors under ATF’s then-current understanding of the law.
- Please support the immediate passage of the Hearing Protection Act (HPA – H.R.95/S.2050). The HPA would remove suppressors from the outdated and antiquated National Firearms Act, and get ATF out of the business of defining what is and what isn’t a suppressor.
Simply put, it’s time to insist that ATF stop treating the upstanding citizens it regulates like criminals. It’s time for ATF rulemaking to occur in the open. And it’s time to remove suppressors from the NFA so that law-abiding Americans can protect their hearing while exercising their Second Amendment rights without tax or fear of government retribution.
