Category: Gun Schtuff
I fail to see the words “In Common Use” anywhere in the 2nd amendment, but as the Supreme Court was allowed to get away with it in the 1930s Miller case, as they say, “Yet Here We Are™”
40 Million ARs in Private Hands: The Epitome of ‘in Common Use’
I don’t like the idea of a weapon needing to be “in common use” before a government is barred from trying to ban something. This means that a particularly quick legislature might ban some new weapon before it can gain sufficient popularity to be commonly owned, which is troubling on so many levels. While we might not see it in our day and age, the future holds many mysteries, including what weapons technology will look like.
But for now, “in common use” is the standard.
And a new report is bound to dash the hopes of anti-gunners who think they can sell the Supreme Court on the weapons not being that common.
A new survey of nearly 17,000 gun owners has found AR-15 ownership now reaches the 40 million mark, and that women and people of color make up an ever-larger share of buyers.
The 2026 National Firearms Survey, published on Saturday, examined firearm ownership and use across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It determined 25 percent of gun owners report they currently have an AR-15, and an additional 12.9 percent said they own a similar semi-automatic rifle–putting the combined number of owners somewhere around 26.4 million. It also found that more people of color and women are choosing to own guns, a trend that picked up speed during the COVID-19 pandemic and persisted in the years since. Gun ownership among nearly every minority group increased from the last National Firearms Survey fielded in 2021.
“In sum, firearms ownership has continued to grow, and firearms owners are more diverse than ever,” Georgetown Professor William English, who conducted the survey, wrote.
The survey is among the broadest and most comprehensive scientific looks at firearms ownership and use patterns available to date. Its findings on those fronts may help shape the legal and political conversation around firearms. The continued diversification of gun ownership the survey identified may influence how politicians approach gun regulation, and the widespread popularity of AR-15s and other guns commonly targeted by “assault weapons” bans it found could impact how the Supreme Court decides on the constitutionality of those bans in an upcoming case–especially since the Court’s standard for deciding whether a gun restriction violates the Second Amendment is grounded in whether the gun is in “common use.”
English, an assistant professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, conducted the first wave of the survey five years ago. He argued his approach, which involves using a polling company to field a large pool of online respondents in order to achieve a representative sample in every state, provided more substantive insight than previous survey-based research on American gun owners.
We’ve talked about another aspect of English’s work recently, namely his findings on defensive gun uses.
And 17,000 is not a small sample size by any stretch of the imagination. However, keep something in mind here.
NSSF Guidance on NFA Transfers
On Aug. 8, 2026, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled in Silencer Shop v. ATF that most of the National Firearms Act (NFA) is unconstitutional, stating that portions of the NFA that no longer collect tax revenue as a result of cuts in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill can no longer be justified as a lawful exercise of Congress’s taxing authority. The court concluded that the registration requirements and other regulations on items like silencers (suppressors), short-barrel rifles (SBRs) and short-barrel shotguns (SBSs) that are ostensibly justified as part of the tax collection process are unconstitutional.
The court entered a permanent injunction providing relief to only the plaintiffs in the legal challenge, and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) declined to seek an emergency appeal or stay of that decision, which means that the injunction is now in effect. However, DOJ still has until Oct. 5, 2026, to appeal or seek a stay of the final judgment, and there are many unanswered questions about the implications of the injunction.
Pentagon dubs M18 handgun ‘safe and reliable’ after review
The Pentagon is defending the safety of M17 and M18 handguns — military versions of the controversial SIG Sauer P320 — saying that “there has never been a mechanically caused accidental discharge” involving the service weapon.
The Aug. 7 statement followed a review of the Modular Handgun System, a program led by the Army’s Project Manager Soldier Lethality, initiated after an airman was shot and killed because of an alleged “uncommanded discharge” with an M18 handgun.
Last year’s incident resulted in an immediate inspection of all M18 handguns issued by the Air Force Global Strike Command as well as a temporary pause of their use, which was lifted a month later.
Additionally, three airmen involved in the deadly shooting were charged with lying to investigators. They claimed the gun just “went off” when the shooter slammed his duty belt against a desk, when in reality, he had pointed it at the victim in a “joking manner.”
According to the statement, the Army has investigated all reports of incidents involving MHS pistols discharging without a trigger pull, and firearms mishaps account for less than 0.006% of all MHS pistols issued.
“All investigated incidents of alleged ‘uncommanded discharges’ have been traced back to the trigger being pulled,” Army officials say, adding that they blame “public speculation and online misinformation” for the safety concerns regarding the handgun design.
However, the civilian version of the handgun has been linked to dozens of injuries and a handful of deaths, with victims claiming the gun discharged a round without a trigger pull. In turn, the design has been the subject of more than 100 legal challenges since it was introduced in 2014, with varying outcomes.
In many of the lawsuits, attorneys argue that the design’s passive safeties can fail to adequately prevent unintentional manipulation of the trigger. It’s important to note that unlike the civilian P320, the M18 and M17 pistol designs are equipped with a manual safety.
Since the SIG design won DoD approval in 2017, M17 and M18 pistols have become the standard-issue sidearm for the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy. There are more than 400,000 currently in service.
Guilt-Trip Didn’t Work, So Now Regulations Follow Gun Store’s Recent Move
It’s amazing how guns and alcohol are treated similarly despite being very different. I don’t just mean that one is a liquid and one is a solid. Elementary science is too obvious, after all. What I mean is that while alcohol can and sometimes is consumed on the premises of a retail location, guns are almost never used on those premises. Unfortunately, many towns try to act like they are.
Goleta, California wasn’t one of those. Maybe they didn’t think it would ever be an issue, but when a gun store secured a location that had been vacant for three years, some members of the community lost their minds. They tried to guilt-trip the owner.
It didn’t work, so now they’re trying something “new,” but it’s as old as governments.
City of Goleta representatives said they have taken note. They acknowledged that there are no current restrictions on where a gun store can open within town limits. A business license was issued to Goodland Guns to operate in the new location in early June.
Continued public outcry over the issue, however, has sparked action at city hall.
“We are going to bring some options back that could lead to a change in our zoning or an ordinance that would put potentially more restrictions where gun stores could be located,” Goleta City Manager Robert Nisbet told SFGATE via phone Tuesday.
Nisbet said the issue is slated for discussion at the upcoming City Council meeting on Sept. 1.
He said while he couldn’t speak for what the City Council will ultimately decide to do, he noted that he believes it is “looking forward to putting greater restrictions on [gun stores].”
Nisbet noted that while the city currently allows gun shops only in commercial zones, it would be unable to ban them altogether. “There’s the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms,” he said. “Cities cannot really restrict gun stores [wholesale] within a city. You can’t do it.”
“The general concept is to make it more restrictive, what we define as sensitive zones, places like a daycare,” he added.
Again, it’s not like gun stores are notorious shooting locales. There aren’t stray bullets flying hither and yon from the parking lot.
People go in, conduct perfectly lawful business, and then leave.
What Nisbet, though, is telling us is that they’d rather have left a commercial property vacant where it apparently had a history of being broken into and vandalized, thus making it more of an eyesore, than see a business move in and restore it into working order.
Goodland Guns owner Dan Ashton sat down with Cam on Thursday to talk about the situation, but from my point of view, he’s done nothing wrong, and some people in Goleta need to get their knickers untwisted.
Of course, what follows from this kind of “thinking” is that gun stores get relegated purely to higher crime areas, then get blamed for the higher crime, even though they’re simply not allowed to operate elsewhere.
Nisbet himself said it. The concept is to make it more restrictive to do business if you’re a gun store owner. Daycares aren’t going to be impacted by a gun store’s location unless some parent gets distracted by whatever Kel-Tec came up with next instead of remembering to pick Junior up on time. That’s about it.
Federal Judge: ATF’s ‘Frame and Receiver Rule’ Unconstitutional
A federal district court judge in Texas ruled Tuesday that the Biden-era “Final Rule” on Frames and Receivers as defined by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment and Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
The case is known as Defense Distributed v Blanche (formerly known as VanDerStok v. Bondi).
In his 29-page ruling, Chief U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas writes, “The Final Rule does not merely lack supporting analogues. It contradicts the actual historical tradition of personal gunsmithing. Self-manufacture of firearms in America was common and indeed foundational to establishing our Nation…
“Thus, the Court ENJOINS Defendants from enforcing 27 C.F.R. § 478.11 and 27 C.F.R. § 478.12(c) against Defense Distributed, SAF, or any of SAF’s current or future members with respect to Defense Distributed’s M1911 80% Frames and G80 Build Kit, Unfinished Receiver, and Grip Module.”
According to a Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) news release announcing the ruling—SAF was a plaintiff in the case—”The court declared the rule unconstitutional as applied to all SAF members and issued a permanent injunction protecting Defense Distributed and current and future Second Amendment Foundation members as it relates to the specific gun kits involved in the case. SAF and its partners filed for a motion summary judgment in April of this year, which today, the Court granted.”
A jubilant SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb stated, “It was obvious from the outset that the Biden ATF’s definition of a ‘firearm’ was intentionally vague and provided no clear guidance to the average law-abiding American as to what was actually legal.
“As it stood previously,” he continued, “the updated definition, in essence, made a law-abiding citizen a criminal for nothing more than owning a piece of plastic that could be converted into a firearm. That isn’t how it works. Congress set the definition and the ATF can’t unilaterally trump up a revised version to suit their political agenda. The ruling also affirms that you are indeed allowed make firearms in your own home without fear of prosecution.”
In his ruling, Judge O’Connor—a 2007 George W. Bush appointee—criticized the ATF’s Final Rule for using “abstract and vague language.”
Texas NFA Injunction Is Now in Effect—But Major Compliance Questions Remain for FFLs
Executive Summary
On August 5, 2026, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix held that specified National Firearms Act registration and advance-approval requirements exceed Congress’s enumerated powers as applied to suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and “any other weapons” whose making and transfer taxes Congress reduced to $0.
The court stayed its final judgment for seven days to permit the federal defendants to seek appellate relief. That stay expired at the end of August 12. As of August 13, the publicly available dockets reflect no additional district-court or Fifth Circuit stay, no notice of appeal, and no order otherwise suspending the injunction. The latest publicly indexed district-court filing is an August 12 notice of attorney appearance, which did not alter the injunction or extend the stay. The injunction is therefore presently operative. District-court docket
That does not mean the NFA registration system has disappeared for everyone.
- The injunction is not universal. It protects the named plaintiffs and, where applicable, their agencies, political subdivisions, actual current and future members, and qualifying current and future customers.
- An individual is not protected merely because he or she lives in one of the fifteen plaintiff states.
- Customer protection is transaction-specific. It applies to qualifying transactions with a protected commercial plaintiff or a commercial member of a plaintiff association; it is not a blanket exemption covering everything the customer owns, makes, transfers, or possesses.
- Supporters, donors, spouses, children, and other household members are not protected unless they independently qualify.
- A person’s association membership should not automatically be assumed to protect a separate trust, LLC, corporation, or other legal entity.
- The consolidated Jensen plaintiffs did not obtain relief regarding AOWs, although they received additional relief concerning individual-maker marking requirements.
- Machineguns, destructive devices, the Gun Control Act, federal licensing requirements, Form 4473 requirements, prohibited-person laws, and state and local laws remain unaffected.
CMP Announces M14 Prices, 1897 Trench Guns
Shooting Sports USA got the CMP on record about the new M14 sales program, as well as some updates on other sales opportunities. This episode of the National Matches Update Show has an interview with CMP Chairman and CEO Jerry O’Keefe, where he answers the questions so many of us have had. Keep reading for the details.
We previously covered the announcement that semi-converted M14 rifles would be made available for purchase through the CMP. The initial announcement was light on details other than the general facts that these guns would be converted from full-auto to semi-auto. But the head of the CMP has some more info to share.
Mr. O’Keefe announced in an interview with Shooting Sports USA that the CMP will sell M14s for under $2,000. How far under that price, and whether there will be multiple grades at different price points, was not announced. But the price point being similar to commercial versions is certainly welcome news!
This price point is, at least in part, a reflection of how many guns will be available for purchase. More than 100,000 M14 rifles will be made available through the CMP purchase program. It will be a major process to convert all of those guns!
Public reaction to the M14 sales initiative has been overwhelming. Given that level of excitement, CMP will have purchase limits of 2 M14s per person per year. Initial sales have also been pushed back to the beginning of 2027 so there will be sufficient guns on hand to meet demand.
But the updates were not limited to the M14. We previously covered the announcement that CMP would be selling shotguns. Those will be coming from the various branches of the armed forces. The first batch will be 2,000-3,000 scatterguns from the Army coming in the Fall. About 400 of the legendary Model 1897 Trench Guns are part of that batch. Pricing info was not available, but it is a good guess that those will be put up for auction.
Purchase limits for the 1911 are also changing. The current system caps lifetime purchases at four pistols. Starting January 1st, 2027, the lifetime cap will be gone. Instead, purchasers can get two pistols per person per year.
We will be sure to share more details about the new guns coming from CMP as they become available. Which ones are you planning to pick up? And what military surplus guns would you like to see from CMP in the future?
GOP Coalition Urges DOJ to Use Rulemaking to Adopt Jensen v. ATF Ruling Nationwide
A letter currently in the possession of Breitbart News shows Rep. Andrew Clyde (R) and a GOP coalition urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) to apply the Jensen v. ATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] ruling nationwide, broadening its application via rulemaking to include all law-abiding Americans.
On August 5, 2026, Breitbart News reported that plaintiffs in Jensen v. ATF secured a ruling freeing them from the National Firearms Act’s (NFA’s) registration requirements for suppressors and short barrel rifles and shotguns.
Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF is consolidated with Jensen v. ATF, which means numerous plaintiffs — including Silencer Shop customers and members of certain gun rights groups — are free from the burdensome registration requirements if the ruling stands.
The DOJ was given a 7-day window in which to appeal the decision, and the letter from Clyde and 46 other GOP Senators and House members urges the department not to do so.
The letter says:
The court’s opinion tracks precisely the position this Congress articulated when we passed Section 70436 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The court correctly recognized that the NFA’s registration, application, and reporting requirements for short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, silencers, and AOWs have rested only on the taxing power, and that a tax set to zero can no longer support the regulatory machinery built to collect it.
Instead of appealing, the signatories of the letter urge the DOJ to use rulemaking to adopt the various aspects of the ruling nationwide so the benefits it secured are not only applicable to customers of Silencer Shop, members of certain gun rights groups, etc.
The letter says:
The DOJ should apply the court’s constitutional holding as its nationwide operating position. The court held that the challenged NFA provisions — governing registration, application, and transfer of untaxed firearms — are unconstitutional because they no longer rest on any valid exercise of an enumerated power.
That holding does not turn on any fact particular to the named plaintiffs; it applies with equal force to every person subject to these same regulations. Therefore, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) should be directed to apply this ruling as its governing position to all transfers and makings involving untaxed firearms, regardless of whether the applicant is a party to this litigation, again effective immediately.
The signatories explained, “Immediate application of the ruling nationwide is necessary to avoid the untenable alternative in the interim: a split enforcement regime in which the DOJ applies these requirements to one gun owner while declining to apply them to his neighbor, solely because one person happens to be a customer of Silencer Shop or a member of Gun Owners of America.”
The letter continues:
The DOJ should initiate rulemaking to formally rescind or amend the challenged regulations as they apply to untaxed firearms. Rulemaking is necessary to make this outcome permanent.
We urge you to begin that rulemaking process without delay, so that the immediate, nationwide application of the court’s ruling is followed as promptly as the APA allows by a durable regulatory fix that does not depend on the discretion of any particular administration.
The letter concludes by focusing on the important role the Second Amendment has played, and continues to play, in protecting and preserving freedom:
The Second Amendment is the practical guardian of those God-given rights, ensuring that free citizens retain the ultimate means to defend their lives, their liberty, and their families.
When the DOJ defends unconstitutional gun regulations then the ATF becomes weaponized against law-abiding Americans and the government betrays its founding purpose. Restoring the Second Amendment is not merely a policy matter — it is a fulfillment of this nation’s oldest and most sacred promise to its people.
We stand ready to work with you and the Department of Justice to see these priorities enacted, and we are grateful for your continued commitment to our sacred Liberties and the Second Amendment that protects them.
The letter is addressed to Attorney General Todd Blanche and cc’d ATF Director Robert Cekada and will be released to both of them at some point today.
The GOP signatories in addition to Rep. Clyde are Sens. Steve Daines, Roger Marshall, Bill Cassidy, Cynthia Lummis, Mike Lee, John Cornyn, John Barrasso, and Mike Crapo, as well as House members Mary Miller, Keith Self, Diana Harshbarger, Eric Burlison, Eli Crane, John Brecheen, H. Morgan Griffith, Ben Cline, Clay Higgins, Michael Cloud, Ralph Norman, Scott Perry, Warren Davidson, Shari Biggs, Kat Cammack, Bruce Westerman, Derrick Van Orden, Tom McClintock, Mike Collins, Scott DesJarlais, Jimmy Patronis, Morgan Luttrell, Austin Scott, Richard Hudson, Randy Weber, Claudia Tenney, Pete Sessions, Andy Biggs, Riley Moore, Derek Schmidt, Wesley Hunt, Mark Harris, Tim Burchett, Brian Babin, Lauren Boebert, Victoria Spartz, Chip Roy, and Earl L. “Buddy” Carter.
Charter Arms® Introduces the New Walker Revolver Series
Charter Arms, manufacturers of affordable, 100% American-made revolvers for more than 60 years, is proud to announce the introduction of the new Walker Series of revolvers.
The Walker is an ultra-compact, rimfire revolver designed for concealed carry. It is available with either a .22 LR or .22 WMR chambering; both have eight-round capacities.
“We couldn’t be happier to offer this .22 caliber revolver series,” said Charter Arms owner, President and CEO Nick Ecker. “Customers have praised its concealability, accuracy, and design. This new series offers the ultimate in dependable performance.”
The new .22 Walker Series from Charter Arms delivers lightweight confidence in a sleek, modern concealed-carry platform built for everyday reliability. Designed for shooters who value simplicity, comfort, and dependable performance, the Walker combines an ultra-compact profile with eight-shot capacity in either .22 LR or .22 WMR.
Q&A O’The Day
Q: How do you know you’ve mastered the shotgun?
A: You don’t blink when firing.
In a long-awaited opinion, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has released its en banc decision in a trio of cases challenging New Jersey’s ban on so-called assault weapons and large capacity magazines, holding that the ban violates the Second Amendment’s protections for the right to keep and bear arms.
Besides the majority opinion, there are five opinions concurring either in whole or in part, along with three dissenting opinions, so Second Amendment attorneys and amateur law nerds like myself will have a lot of reading to do this weekend. Here’s the most important part of the majority opinion as an appetizer.
Applying the framework announced in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, we agree with the District Court that New Jersey’s ban on Colt AR-15s violates the Second Amendment. However, because the record supports the same result for all semi-automatic rifles—not only Colt AR-15s—we will MODIFY the District Court’s order so that it deems the Assault Firearm Provisions unconstitutional with respect to the full class of semi-automatic rifles. We will AFFIRM that part of the order as modified.
The LCM Provisions also violate the Second Amendment, so we will REVERSE the District Court’s order with respect to those. Because the LCM Provisions violate the Second Amendment, we need not address the Takings Clause challenge.
While other circuit courts have upheld “assault weapon” bans by claiming they’re “dangerous and unusual” (or “unusually dangerous”), are not commonly-used for self-defense, and so close to machine guns that they’re not even protected by the Second Amendment, the Third Circuit rejected each and every one of those claims.
Even The Trace Admits We’re Seeing More Guns and Less Crime
The gun control movement is based on a simple premise: more guns lead to more crime, and the only way to truly make the United States safer is to reduce the number of firearms in circulation.
When the modern gun control lobby got started in the 1960s, that idea seemed somewhat logical. Violent crime kept going up, and every year more and more guns were added to the mix. In 1991, though, violent crime peaked and then started its decade-long decline, but we continued purchasing millions of firearms each year.
From the early 1990s to 2020, violent crime and homicides fell by more than 50 percent, and after a brief spike during the COVID pandemic they are once again plummeting, this time to lows not seen since at least the 1960s, and probably not for a century or more. The number of privately-owned firearms, meanwhile, has grown to more than 400 million according to most estimates.
Even Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun “news” site The Trace can’t ignore the fact that while gun sales are rising, crime is dropping.
Gun violence is down, significantly, as gun sales are ticking up for the first time in years.
… Shooting deaths and injuries remain at historic lows in the United States, continuing the trend seen in Q1 and in recent years.Data from the Gun Violence Archive shows 6,458 shooting deaths, and 11,781 shooting injuries in the first six months of the year. Both represent the lowest number since 2015.
The per-capita figure of 1.9 shooting deaths per 100,000 Americans is also the lowest in that span.
Still, a few states have seen increases in shooting deaths, including New Hampshire, Connecticut, Iowa, and Massachusetts. These are smaller population states, so a few incidents can have a big impact; a June mass shooting in Iowa helps explain that state’s increase this year.
Two of those states also have incredibly restrictive gun laws, which is yet another bit of evidence that gun control doesn’t stop violent criminals.
While The Trace admits that “gun violence” is down and gun sales are up, it does try to minimize the increase in gun purchases.
An estimated 7.3 million firearms have been sold in the United States — about 4.5 million handguns and another 2.8 million long guns. That would be enough to arm every single resident of Tennessee.
The numbers represent a 2.7 percent increase in gun sales through six months compared to 2025. This marks the first time in six years that we’ve seen an increase in sales.While the uptick is notable, the raw total is still lower than any year from 2020 to 2024.
A handful of states are posting huge increases compared to the first six months of last year. These include three states where legislation to restrict gun buying advanced or took effect:
- Virginia, where a suite of gun safety laws, including a currently paused ban on assault-style weapons, were signed by Governor Abigail Spanberger. The state’s gun sales soared 73 percent this year. The state’s 117,802 sales in June 2026 were the highest of any state, despite Virginia ranking 12th in population.
- Connecticut, where dealers say a proposed “Glock ban” propelled an increase of 25 percent.
- Rhode Island, where a ban on assault-style weapons took effect on July 1, 2026. In the first six months of the year, gun sales climbed 86 percent higher than in 2025.
Yes, when Democrats try to ban guns, it leads to a lot of people purchasing them. Go figure.
While this is the first time in six years that gun sales are up year-to-year, it’s not like sales have been non-existent. In the first six months of 2025, for instance, The Trace says there were 7,093,785 gun purchases. Compare that to the 4,539,309 purchases in the first half of 2010, and it’s easy to see that even with numbers off their peak in 2020, the new “normal” is well above what it was just a few years ago.
This year The Trace estimates 7,287,997 firearms have been sold since January. That’s roughly the same number (7,487,384) that were sold in the first six months of 2016. The big difference is that in 2016, that figure was a 16 percent increase in sales compared to the year before, while this year’s increase is a more modest 3 percent. Again, the floor is higher than it was just a decade ago.
If the “more guns equals more crime” theory were correct, then the United States should be seeing record high levels of “gun violence.” Instead, we’re living in what is likely the safest moment in the past 100 years, if not the entirety of U.S. history. With tens of millions of Americans keeping and bearing arms to protect themselves and others, it’s clear that the Second Amendment isn’t at odds with public safety, but is an integral component in keeping the peace.
What You Haven’t Heard About Suppressors, and What You Really Haven’t Heard About Them
The end of the tax stamp on suppressors wasn’t as good as we wanted, but it was a big step forward. Suppressors, often called “silencers,” aren’t the devices of spy movie infamy. They don’t deaden the sound until you can’t even hear it above a whisper, but they do work. They’re better thought of as safety devices, since they reduce the noise down enough that you probably won’t have as much hearing loss.
And with the Big Beautiful Bill, we don’t have to pay an extra $200 to Uncle Sam if we want one.
Not to be deterred, the regular suspects claimed that suddenly, bad people would use suppressors left and right, and no one would know because every inner-city gang-banger is really James Bond.
The end of the tax stamp has, predictably, created increased demand.
America’s gun buyers are quietly making big noise when it comes to their shooting preferences. They are buying items regulated by the National Firearms Act (NFA) in huge numbers. That includes suppressors, short-barrel rifles (SBRs) and short-barrel shotguns (SBSs).
These figures aren’t in the hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands. The number is creeping up toward 1 million for this year alone, according to data provided to NSSF from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). And there are still seven months of purchasing data to collect this year.
That data shows over 845,000 suppressor applications were submitted and 768,000 were approved from January through May this year. Those totals include both Form 1 applications to manufacture suppressors and Form 4 applications to possess a suppressor either as an individual or in a trust with several parties.
In fact, NSSF reported a 177 percent increase in NFA checks in June 2026 over the previous year. That number jumped to 166,677 last month compared to 60,147 last June.
That’s a lot of suppressors.
But do you know what you haven’t heard? The thing that would be in tons of news reports if it were to happen, but hasn’t?
Why we’re not seeing tons of criminals using suppressors.
Understand that they can still be stolen, still be straw-purchased, or still be manufactured by an individual, so why aren’t they everywhere like we were told they would be? Why aren’t the bad guys using them to shoot up neighborhoods and perhaps avoid systems like ShotSpotter?
Because criminals have little use for such things, that’s why.
A suppressor is a fairly long device, on average, that you put on the end of a firearm. It makes it harder to conceal, and they don’t work as they do in the movies. There’s a reason Luigi Mangione (alleged) had to rack the slide of his gun with each shot. He didn’t know there was a separate device he needed if he wanted his “ghost gun” to cycle.
Even with a different style or model of gun, though, we’re simply not seeing suppressors all over the criminal arrest stories that populate our news feeds.
Companies are selling hundreds of thousands of them this year, possibly millions, and the bad guys aren’t using them. All the doomsaying didn’t pan out. Yet again.
In fact, this is becoming something of a habit for them. Unfortunately, the mainstream media won’t mention it.
If You Haven’t Heard, Suppressor Sales are Booming
America’s gun buyers are quietly making big noise when it comes to their shooting preferences. They are buying items regulated by the National Firearms Act (NFA) in huge numbers. That includes suppressors, short-barrel rifles (SBRs) and short-barrel shotguns (SBSs).
These figures aren’t in the hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands. The number is creeping up toward 1 million for this year alone, according to data provided to NSSF from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). And there are still seven months of purchasing data to collect this year.
That data shows over 845,000 suppressor applications were submitted and 768,000 were approved from January through May this year. Those totals include both Form 1 applications to manufacture suppressors and Form 4 applications to possess a suppressor either as an individual or in a trust with several parties.
In fact, NSSF reported a 177 percent increase in NFA checks in June 2026 over the previous year. That number jumped to 166,677 last month compared to 60,147 last June.
The Reasons
NSSF noted in January that 2026 could be the “Year of the Suppressor.” That prediction is turning out to be spot-on accurate. There are a couple reasons driving these figures.
Undoubtedly the One Big, Beautiful Bill, signed into law in the summer of 2025, turned an increasing interest in suppressors by gun owners into an all-out frenzy. A provision in that law, by deeming the required tax stamp as paid, in effect reduced the tax to $0 from $200.
Without the $200 tax added to the cost of each suppressor, buyers are finding it an easier investment to make. Turns out, when government gets out of the way of exercising rights, law-abiding citizens will want to exercise those rights even more.
Another reason for the dramatic rise in suppressor applications is that the ATF’s NFA Division is approving them in a matter of days, not months. NSSF worked diligently starting back in 2013 to ensure that ATF’s NFA Division had the budgetary resources needed to institute electronic form processing, or eForms.
NICS: Over 1.1 Million Guns Sold in June, NFA Saw 177 Percent Jump
In the lead-up to America’s 250th, the Second Amendment was well exercised, according to the latest data for last month’s gun sales.
According to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, 1,886,539 background checks were processed in June 2026. That was a 1.2 percent decrease from the FBI NICS figure of 1,909,294 in June 2025.
However, that figure covers several types of checks, not just those done for gun sales.
The firearms industry trade group, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, distills the raw NICS numbers to remove gun permit checks and rechecks to yield the true number of checks done for over-the-counter sales. The adjusted figure for June 2026 stands at 1,123,006, a downright decent 11.7 percent increase compared to the June 2025 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,004,986.
Two big causes for the increase in those numbers were pending “assault weapon” bans in Rhode Island and Virginia that were set to take effect in July.
“Virginia saw a 241 percent increase over the same month last year, with 123,699 background checks for the purchase of a firearm,” Mark Oliva, public affairs officer with the NSSF, told Guns.com. “Likewise, Rhode Island had a 201 percent increase over June 2025 with 7,815 background checks completed.”
NFA transfers way, way up
In an update of what is shaping up to be the story of the year when it comes to firearms industry growth, the number of NFA items transferred nearly tripled when compared to last year, with June 2026’s figure of 166,677 transfers being a remarkable 177.1 percent jump compared to June 2025’s much more pedestrian 60,147.
This is no doubt due to the recent zeroing out of the circa 1934 taxes on the making and transfer of suppressors and short-barreled firearms.
