Thirty Regulators, One CEO: Inside the Rise of Silencer Central

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

With SHOT Show 2026 around the corner, we trace Brandon Maddox’s winding path from prairie dogs to podiums, the FedEx fight, and how $0 tax stamps reshape the suppressor game.

SHOT Show Is Coming, And Brandon Maddox Is Taking The Mic

As the new year begins, gun enthusiasts prepare for SHOT Show 2026, now just two weeks away. The lineups of exhibitors and seminars have something for everyone, but it got me thinking, who are these people we see at the gun shows? How did they get here? Brandon Maddox, founder and CEO of Silencer Central, leads today’s suppressor industry and will speak at SHOT Show for the first time.

I got to sit down and talk to Brandon Maddox about what got him to this point. The trail Maddox took to where he is today is windy and took some unexpected turns. 

From Snake Shot To Spark: The First Trigger Pull

Maddox did not jump straight into the firearms and silencer world. Growing up in the city, Maddox learned about guns during visits to his uncle and grandfather in rural Alabama.

During the summers, they took Maddox hunting, where he shot his first snake at age six with a .410 shotgun. 

“Pretty excited to kill a snake… kind of got me addicted,” Maddox said.

As fascinated as he was with hunting, guns were not a large part of his younger life. The only guns in the house were hand-me-downs and gifts from his grandfather. Until well into his adult years, this remained his primary exposure. 

Pharmacy To Prairie Dogs: The Perspective Shift

Maddox leaned into the family profession and studied to be a pharmacist. He built his way up the ladder and made it to a marketing executive role in a large company. Maddox later moved his family to South Dakota, where his in-laws also worked in pharmaceuticals.. 

Here, Maddox leaned into a new side of himself. “My wife’s family, you know, after Thanksgiving lunch, we’d go out to the gun range and shoot,” Maddox said.

His interest in hunting grew, and prairie dog hunting soon became a favorite pastime.

It was at this point that Maddox began learning about silencers. He loved the idea of hunting, but the first two times he went to buy a suppressor at a local shop, the experience was not optimal. 

“I kind of felt like they were almost kind of attacking me for not being a gun guy at this gun shop,” Maddox said. 

Home FFL Or Bust: Learning The Hard Way

After speaking with his father-in-law, Maddox decided to obtain his own FFL before buying another suppressor.

“Seeing the benefits of him being able to get ammo and rifles and scopes and access to everything definitely opened my eyes to the benefits of having a federal firearms license,” Maddox said. On top of this decision, he decided to get it in his home. 

He did all the research and discovered plenty of unexpected stumbling blocks. “I learned really quickly that like most of what I read was like not accurate,” Maddox said. “So I kind of felt duped.”

On the way, Maddox even wrote a book and created a website, intended to help others trying to get their own FFL. 

Maddox eventually successfully got his FFL, and his love for the firearm world and silencer industry grew. “It sort of became contagious,” Maddox said.

Headfirst Into Suppressors: Building Silencer Central

After losing his pharmaceutical job, Maddox committed fully to the suppressor industry.

His growth went slowly, but eventually, Brandon Maddox reached where he is now, with FFLs in 42 states and the massive company, Silencer Central.  It took him 15 years of hard work to reach this point. Maddox found that regulations and misinformation created major barriers to success in the firearms industry.

This began a new struggle for him. Most people he talked to at shows and events believed silencers to be illegal, and at the time, that was true in many states.

Since Maddox broke into the silencer world, silencers have become legal in many more states, including two that he felt were relevant to him at the beginning, Minnesota and Iowa. 

As of January 1st this year, another big change has made silencers more accessible to hunters and shooters. The tax stamp that for so long placed a $200 tax on suppressors is now $0 (zero dollars), making it easier and more desirable to buy suppressors. 

Are Silencers Still Treated Fairly Here?

Maddox works every day to improve legislation and regulations on silencers because he feels like they are unfairly restricted in the United States. 

“You can walk into most other countries, and buy a silencer right off the shelf like you could a scope. I would say that’s the biggest opportunity for deregulation, would be treating silencers like scopes, like other countries do, and completely deregulate them, not even treat them as a firearm,” Maddox said.

In his early years, shooting snakes with his uncle in the South, Maddox feels like gun rights and the ability to hunt were not under attack the way they are now. “It’s a battle to preserve rights,” Maddox said. He thinks it is an uphill battle to keep Second Amendment rights.

“People who are Second Amendment advocates, we’re all being discriminated against, whether we realize it or not,” he said.

Thirty Against One: The Room He Will Not Forget

One of the most difficult experiences Maddox faced in trying to grow and get his silencer business going occurred in November 2019. 

Maddox got an email from someone in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the ATF. They requested a meeting with him.

“The way I read the emails, it sounded like it was going to be two folks. The gentleman who emailed me and his boss,” Maddox said.

When he walked into the room there were over 30 bureaucrats and regulators there, and more joined via video conference.

“I Was Not Going To Cave”

Maddox described how they ganged up on him, obviously trying to discourage him from expanding. At the time, he had 21 approved FFLs in different states and 21 pending with the ATF. 

The people in this room gave Maddox a laundry list of hoops they had for him to jump through before they would approve any more of his FFLs. “I would say that was a pretty tough scenario to be told that statutes don’t require this, but we’re ATF, and we want you to do this. We’re not going to issue your license unless you do this,” Maddox said. 

By the end of the meeting, Maddox said he had established he would not be caving. “If anything, I think it built respect with the ATF for me,” Maddox said.

The FedEx Fight: A Contract Line In The Sand

Another more recent issue that has challenged Brandon is the FedEx Lawsuit Silencer Central is involved in.

Maddox described the whole situation as a case of unethical discrimination. “They told us they would do it, got us to sign a contract, we converted all of our business to them, and then they pulled the rug out from underneath us after a quick period of time.” 

One of the biggest goals Maddox has in this whole lawsuit is to raise awareness of these unethical practices, but he does believe the judge will rule the case in their favor. 

According to Maddox, the dispute traces back to months of direct negotiations with FedEx leadership, where Silencer Central was transparent about the nature of its business and its fully lawful, ATF-compliant shipping model.

FedEx representatives visited Silencer Central’s facilities, reviewed operations, and ultimately agreed in writing to provide shipping services that included residential delivery. Relying on that agreement, Silencer Central transitioned its logistics infrastructure and moved significant volume to FedEx, only to have the company abruptly reverse course shortly thereafter. The reversal was not driven by a change in law or compliance requirements, but by an internal policy decision that contradicted the very terms FedEx had already approved.

Rather than quietly absorb the disruption or look for a workaround, Maddox chose to draw a line. He has framed the lawsuit not just as a contract dispute, but as a stand against what he sees as selective and discriminatory treatment of lawful Second Amendment businesses by major corporate service providers.

Maddox has emphasized that Silencer Central followed the rules at every step, disclosed everything upfront, and relied in good faith on FedEx’s commitments. In his view, allowing large corporations to walk away from signed agreements simply because of political discomfort sets a dangerous precedent. The lawsuit, he says, is about accountability, fairness, and ensuring that lawful firearms businesses are treated no differently than any other regulated industry operating within the law.

Pushing For Change With $0 Tax Stamps Now In Play

Maddox is proud of the change he is making in the silencer world, but he feels like he is not done. He wants to spread the knowledge further. 

“I started doing this in the early 2000s. If you look at the evolution of most people who thought they were illegal, to now, people know they’re legal. It’s probably one of the hottest issues right now in the firearms industry, to continue to get them deregulated.”

Because he believes that the suppressor regulations in the U.S. are so extreme compared to other countries, he wants to effect change from the top, too. “Anytime you can get a legislator to listen to someone talk about suppressors, I think there’s a benefit there.”

Rapid Fire: Brandon Maddox Fun Facts

I also asked Brandon Maddox a few other questions for fun.

Q: Favorite gun?

A: “I’m a huge H&K MP5 full-auto fan. Love it. It runs like a sewing machine.”

Q: Favorite book?

A: “Undaunted Courage” by Stephen Ambrose. Maddox loves the story of Lewis & Clark, especially how they used their pump gun to scare the Native Americans.

Q: Favorite movie?

A: Shawshank Redemption. He was impressed by the people “Going through that hard time and finally getting out.”

Q: Who does he look up to as “thought-leaders?”

• His attorney, Dr Steve Halbriech, “He’s a walking encyclopedia of, like, history of firearms law and challenges at a federal level, at a state level, the history,” Maddox said.

• Wally Nelson, a veteran who spent 30+ years working in the ATF, “He came out and helped me when I first got started, kind of understanding NFA laws, regulations, how to follow them,” Maddox said.
• Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart. Maddox admires how Walton took something that already existed (discount stores) and said, “How do we make the best and then basically scale it?” Maddox recommends reading Walton’s autobiography: “Made in America.”

Being A Thought Leader In A Louder Conversation

One of Brandon Maddox’s long-time goals has been to speak at SHOT Show, which he is doing in just a few weeks. 

“To be successful, you have to really make yourself knowledgeable, more knowledgeable than anyone else,” Maddox said. “If people want to get in the industry, my recommendation would be to learn as much as you can. I mean, I have Google Alerts set up where anything with the word silencer or suppressor comes directly to my inbox every day, and I read every article.”

Key Facts About Brandon Maddox And Silencer Central

Company	Silencer Central
Role	Founder and CEO
FFL Footprint	42 states
Milestone	15 years of growth
Memorable ATF Moment	2019 meeting with 30+ attendees
Legal Note	FedEx lawsuit ongoing
Policy Shift	$0 Federal tax stamp effective January 1, 2026
SHOT Show	Speaking at SHOT Show 2026

Pros And Cons Of The Current Suppressor Landscape

• Pros: $0 tax stamps in 2026, growing state-level acceptance, streamlined education, and rising public awareness.
• Cons: Remaining federal hurdles, lingering misinformation, shipping and carrier unpredictability, and uneven state laws.

Related Reads from GunsAmerica Digest

• Suppressor Coverage and How-To Guides
• All SHOT Show News and Coverage
• Silencer Reviews and Tips