Is Congress Going to Make it Easier to Buy Suppressors?

Doing so would eliminate the $200 tax on suppressors as well as the onerous approval process that requires would-be buyers to submit a photo, fingerprints, and additional forms to the ATF. If the Senate retains that provision and President Trump signs the bill, suppressors could be purchased off-the-shelf with the same instant background check process used to purchase a firearm.

Gun control groups have mobilized to kill the amendment by arguing that it will empower criminals.

“There’s a reason silencers have been regulated for nearly a century: They make it much harder for law enforcement and bystanders to react quickly to gunshots,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “In the name of gun industry profits, House Republicans are putting law enforcement and our communities at greater risk of being shot — all while gutting health care for millions of Americans.”

Gun rights groups have largely praised the move, though some would also like to see short-barreled rifles and shotguns deregulated as well. The National Rifle Association hailed it as a “monumental victory for Second Amendment rights,” and Gun Owners of America called it a “historic win for gun owners nationwide!”

What happens next will largely depend on an esoteric procedure in the U.S. Senate known as “reconciliation.” Even if Republicans have enough votes to deregulate suppressors with a simple majority, they might not be able to make it happen.

Just a few days before the full House passed the budget bill, the American Suppressor Association sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune. The letter was signed by 40 gun companies and pro-2A nonprofits. It asked these congressional leaders to add to the bill Section 2 of the Hearing Protection Act.

Section 2 is titled, “Equal Treatment of Silencers and Firearms.” It amends Section 5845(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to effectively remove suppressors from the list of regulated items under the National Firearms Act (NFA). The NFA was originally passed in 1934, and it imposed what was then a prohibitively expensive tax on short-barreled rifles and shotguns, suppressors, and machineguns.

Removing suppressors from that list would allow a buyer to purchase a suppressor over the counter in the same way a firearm is purchased. In states that do not require a background check for private gun sales, it would also allow suppressors to be transferred privately, without a background check. It would not, however, legalize suppressors in the eight states where they are currently illegal to own.

The budget bill already contained a provision that eliminated the $200 tax stamp, but Speaker Mike Johnson agreed to take things a step further. He added Section 2 of the Hearing Protection Act during a meeting of the House Rules Committee, and the entire bill passed the House on a 215-214 vote.

“The removal of suppressors from the unconstitutional NFA tax scheme is long overdue, and represents the biggest legislative victory for the Second Amendment community in my lifetime,” said Knox Williams, the president of the American Suppressor Association.

While gun control groups want to see the amendment repealed, some gun rights groups believe it doesn’t go far enough. The National Firearms Act also tightly regulates rifles with barrels shorter than 16 inches, shotguns with barrels shorter than 18 inches, and “any other weapon,” a category of regulated firearms that don’t fit neatly into the rifle or shotgun category.

In a post praising the suppressor language, Gun Owners of America called on its supporters to ask the Senate to deregulate these other types of firearms as well.

“But the fight is NOT over,” the group said. “We’re continuing to push for the full delisting of SBRs, SBSs, and AOWs—so that anti-gun presidents like Joe Biden can never again weaponize the NFA against law-abiding Americans.”

The NRA did not make a similar call in their statement on the bill, which could be due to the other point of conflict: it’s unclear if the Senate will be allowed to deregulate suppressors as part of its reconciliation process.

Normally, the Senate needs 60 votes to overcome a filibuster and pass legislation. But the reconciliation process follows a different set of rules that do not include the opportunity to filibuster.

The reconciliation process was instituted by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, and it is only supposed to be used for budgetary matters. What counts as a budgetary matter is the crux of this argument.

Congress passed the Byrd rule in 1986, which was supposed to clarify what can and cannot be passed as part of the reconciliation process. It includes six definitions of “extraneous matter” (topics that cannot be passed), but it’s up to the Senate Parliamentarian to make the ultimate decision.

This is likely why the first version of the budget bill reduced the tax on suppressors to $0 but did not deregulate the devices any further. House leadership may have figured they were on safe ground repealing a tax, which is obviously related to the budget. Removing requirements to submit forms and fingerprints could end up being disallowed by the Parliamentarian.

Fortunately for suppressor fans, there is a fallback option if that happens. The amendment to the One Big Beautiful Budget Bill kept the original provision that lowers the tax to $0. Even if the larger deregulation is shot down, the tax elimination may survive.

Whether or not Congress succeeds in its bid to remove suppressors from the NFA, hunters will almost certainly continue to use them at an increasing rate. In 2011, less than half of U.S. states allowed suppressors to be used in the field. Today, that number is up to 41. While there were initial fears that suppressors could be used by poachers to evade game wardens, those fears have so far not been realized on a large scale. What’s more, suppressors are commonly used for hunting in Europe without a rise in wildlife crime.

The Senate will likely take weeks to review the bill and offer their own amendments, and then it must return to the House for final approval. In the meantime, hunters, sport shooters, and other concerned citizens can contact their senators to make their voices heard.