Man Successfully Registers Potato as Silencer
“TATE001”
That’s the official serial number of what appears to be the first legally registered 9mm potato silencer, according to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) registration form obtained by The Reload. It’s registered to a man named Zach Clark, who said he pulled off the feat as an act of defiance against the National Firearms Act (NFA).
“It’s a good way to highlight to normal people that like, ‘Yeah, this is dumb,’” Clark told The Reload. “This whole law is kind of dumb.”
The spud suppressor may be the most remarkable result of the NFA tax cut enacted at the beginning of the year as part of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which made the cost of registering suppressors $0 and opened up the floodgates. The ATF saw more NFA electronic registration requests on New Year’s Day than at any time in its history. The lower cost of compliance, combined with a recently-digitized process, has made new kinds of suppressors–including disposable or even meme designs–more viable than before.
“The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) informed NSSF that on Thursday, January 1, 2026, alone, an unprecedented surge in e-Forms submissions were being processed,” the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry’s trade group, said last week. “That total was approximately 150,000 e-Forms. For an eye-popping comparison, last year, ahead of the $200-to-$0 tax change, typical daily volume on e-Forms for suppressors, SBRs and SBSs would hover closer to around 2,500.”
While the NFA requires registration of all sound-suppressing devices that attach to a gun barrel to be registered with the ATF, it provides a process for people to register their own homemade designs. In the same way that somebody buying a suppressor from a store would have to fill out an NFA registration form and get the ATF to approve it before taking possession of the device, a home builder has to submit their intent to build one and get approval before actually constructing the device.
Clark went through that process with his potato suppressor design. He said he made sure to keep potatoes out of his house while he waited to hear back from the ATF.
“As of this moment, I have the serialized washer, and I have the potato, but I haven’t put it together,” he told The Reload. “There’s a manufacturing buffer on that from approval; you have to wait. Plus, that’s a whole thing of like, what is your manufacturing intent? Does it count when you’ll buy the potato? Is it having any potato in your house? Any potato products?”
While Clark’s registration effort is something of a troll, gun-rights lawyer Matt Larosiere noted it isn’t entirely a laughing matter.
“The terms ‘firearm silencer’ and ‘firearm muffler’ mean any device for silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of a portable firearm. So, the definition is pretty broad with respect to a silencer itself, as opposed to the definitions covering silencer parts,” Larosiere, who has dealt with many NFA registrations over the years, told The Reload. “We can see this going way back to ATF’s precursors deeming the XM177 moderator a ‘silencer,’ even though it barely reduced muzzle report. On the other hand, we’ve seen ATF consistently take the position in determination letters and when giving expert testimony, that a pillow or potato, when used ‘for’ diminishing the report of a firearm, are in fact ‘silencers.’”
Larosiere said it doesn’t really matter how significant the noise reduction is, either. What matters is whether the “device” is for reducing the noise or not. Which is relevant because Clark isn’t the first person to have the idea of strapping a potato to the end of a gun in order to suppress the sound of gunfire. At least a few YouTube accounts have tested whether spuds can effectively silence gunshots, with unimpressive results, including a test by licensed manufacturer SilencerCo. (It’s not clear whether those potatoes were officially registered with the ATF or not.)
Additionally, there is some history of people misusing potatoes as suppressors in the real world. There have been several cases where people have attempted to use improvised potato silencers in crimes, with one case wrapping up as recently as last year. One incident was reportedly inspired by a Hollywood depiction of a potato suppressor in season four of The Wire.
Some lawmakers have also warned that the ATF’s interpretation of what constitutes a silencer is overly broad and could include potatoes. In 2022, Republican Congressman Daniel Webster warned, “anyone with a potato in their home could be committing a felony” in a newspaper piece.
Clark said that history was on his mind when he decided to submit his potato silencer registration just after the ball dropped on New Year’s Day.
“This seems to be what the ATF has run with historically,” he said. “Anything you could put on the end of the device that could, even if it’s only a single time, suppress the noise of a gunshot, they consider that an NFA item. It’s very similar to how you get the goofy historical samples of a rubber band or a shoelace being considered a machine gun, right?”
He reasoned that if he could be arrested for having an unregistered potato silencer, then it must be possible to register one as well.
“There was definitely some precedent to it. And, you know, and the argument is, if you can arrest me for possessing a potato suppressor, and I’m constitutionally allowed to have a potato suppressor if I go through the process, then I should constitutionally be allowed to register a potato.”
The ATF didn’t respond to a request for comment on Clark’s registration, but the approval suggests they agree. Although, the message Clark’s approvals send is a bit muddled. It turns out he submitted three potato suppressors for ATF approval, but only two were approved.
“Serial number Samwise01 was denied,” he said. “But Tate001 and Tate002 were approved.”
He said he ran into the same issue with the 3D-printed silencer designs he submitted.
“It happened with some of my 3D-printed suppressors, too,” Clark said. “I had three that were denied that used the exact same documentation as the other 40 that were approved. So who knows? I’m assuming with what’s going on at the ATF right now, they’re just flying through them. So, there might not even be a thought process. The person could just be clicking, yes, no, because there’s chaos over there.”
He noted his potato silencer design is similar in construction to the 3D-printed design. But with a russet potato.
“It’s similar to 3d printed ones, you get a metal washer, and you engrave the metal washer,” he said. “Then you use a bunch of epoxy and essentially, like, melt it together to where you can’t remove the serialization without damaging it. Same as everything else.”
Clark said it’s possible the ATF mistakenly approved his potatoes. He said the attention his registration has attracted could get it revoked if the ATF becomes embarrassed by the situation. But he said he isn’t worried, and the agency revoking his registration could lead to more of the absurdity he’s trying to highlight.
“I definitely think that’s going to happen, but I’m not like concerned legally, because, from what I’m familiar with, what they would do if they did revoke it is, you have to give it back,” he said. “Okay, if you want to send an agent to my house to pick up this potato, that’s even funnier. I’m all for it.”
He said he may simply bake the potato for dinner if the ATF changes its mind and demands he destroy it.
“What’s the legal implication of eating an NFA item?” Clark asked.
He also noted some further legal questions that arise when registering an organic item under the NFA.
“If you plant the registered potato and it creates more potatoes, are they under the same serial number?” he asked. “Or is that manufacturing?”
For now, Clark said he has no plans to submit any additional meme designs. However, he noted he isn’t the only one taking advantage of the $0 tax to make a point about the breadth of NFA regulations.
“There are other people that have talked about submitted forms for pillows. One is particularly funny because, for the documentation, it’s just a picture of Mike Lindell holding a My Pillow,” Clark said. “People have submitted forms for Monster Energy cans. So, there are definitely a lot of people that are going that angle.”
In the end, Clark framed his potato silencer as a form of activism that uses levity to spotlight what he views as a serious problem with the NFA.
“Trying to have fun while taking on the government is the best way to do it,” he said.