The Justice Department is standing down. Solicitor General D. John Sauer formally notified Congress that the Department will not appeal the Silencer Shop Foundation injunction blocking National Firearms Act registration and approval requirements for suppressors and short-barreled rifles. The notice, delivered in early October 2026, leaves the Texas ruling in place for covered parties.
That is a major retreat from federal NFA enforcement. The Silencer Shop Foundation injunction targets the registration and approval process the government has long imposed on suppressors and short-barreled rifles. By declining to appeal, the United States will not ask a higher court to put those mandates back in force against the people and entities the order covers.
Covered parties are no longer under those NFA registration and approval requirements while the injunction stands. The Texas ruling remains the controlling order. Sauer's notice to Congress makes the non-appeal official. This is not a rumor, a leak, or a temporary pause.
Gun-control groups condemned the decision. Giffords framed it as the Department following President Trump's orders and described the result as allowing silencers and what it called dangerous weapons to become easily accessible. The Justice Department did not change course.
The National Firearms Act is the statute that treated suppressors and short-barreled rifles as items requiring federal registration and government approval before lawful possession. A Texas court enjoined those requirements for the Silencer Shop Foundation's covered parties. The Department's refusal to appeal means the United States will not contest that injunction.
The order does not rewrite the NFA for every American in one stroke. It does lock in a Texas court ruling for the class it covers, and it takes the federal government off the field as an appellant. An injunction the Department might have fought is now an injunction the Department will not fight.
The Second Amendment is the supreme law of the land. Registration statutes yield when they collide with that right. Officers of the United States swear an oath to the Constitution, not to the NFA. The Texas injunction stays. Covered parties are not required to submit to NFA registration and approval for suppressors and short-barreled rifles.
References
- https://www.ammoland.com/2026/10/doj-confirms-it-wont-appeal-nfa-ruling-on-suppressors-and-short-barreled-guns/
- https://www.breitbart.com/2nd-amendment/2026/10/02/doj-makes-it-official-tells-congress-it-will-not-appeal-ruling-against-suppressor-registration/
- https://dailycaller.com/2026/10/01/doj-confirms-it-will-not-appeal-ruling-ending-red-tape-for-suppressors/
- https://www.guntalk.com/post/doj-will-not-appeal-the-silencer-shop-foundation-nfa-injunction-is-permanent
- https://giffords.org/press-release/2026/10/doj-follows-trumps-orders-not-to-appeal-nfa-ruling-allowing-silencers-and-dangerous-weapons-to-become-easily-accessible/