ATF suspends federal registration and approval rules for certain firearms

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has stopped enforcing federal registration and pre-approval rules for several categories of regulated firearms. Under the new directive, announced Friday, people can make or transfer silencers, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns and the catch-all category known as "Any Other Weapons" without first registering them or obtaining government sign-off. The policy applies across the country, according to Fox News.

The agency ties the decision to two developments. Congress, through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, set the National Firearms Act tax on making or transferring those items at zero. Separately, a federal court struck down central parts of the law's manufacturing and transfer provisions. The suspension covers items that now carry the zero-dollar rate.

ATF Director Robert Cekada sent federal firearms licensees a letter laying out the shift. He said the President, Congress and the courts have all signaled the same direction, and that his agency is aligning its enforcement with it so it can concentrate on violent crime in American communities. Licensees still have to run background checks on buyers, and the other obligations imposed by the Gun Control Act are unchanged.

Summarized by PolitiKool from Fox News’s reporting. Read the full story at Fox News →