Silencer Form 4s Exploded After the Tax Hit $0

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

The tax went away, and buyers did not exactly ease into the shallow end. FOIA data shows silencer applications surged hard in early 2026, but the real surprise is that approvals still moved far faster than many shooters feared.

Most of you reading this are aware that the tax on making and transferring four of the six types of firearms regulated by the National Firearms Act (NFA) was recently repealed. Beginning January 1, 2026, Silencers, Short Barreled Rifles (SBR), Short Barreled Shotguns (SBS), and Any Other Weapon (AOW) could be made or transferred at a zero-tax rate. There was a plethora of speculation and predictions in the months between July, when we knew the tax was done, and December. Were potential buyers going to hold off to save the tax bill, or would they jump in prior, opting to pay a transfer tax rather than risk being caught up in a deluge of applications that were expected to be submitted in January?

The Zero-Tax Question: Did Buyers Wait or Rush In?

I set out to get a view of application activity related to Silencers, SBRs, SBSs, and AOWs in 2025 and the first two months of 2026. Data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, or FOIA, disclosed some impressive numbers, though admittedly not as lop-sided as I was expecting. In the interest of brevity, I will focus on silencers as they are overwhelmingly the most popular category of NFA items. For example, the monthly average number of Form 4 silencer applications received throughout 2025 was 60,972 with closest competitor, SBRs, averaging 2021 per month. Not surprisingly, all categories saw a substantial increase starting January 1. While it’s possible that some Form 4 transfers were done from collector to dealer or collector to collector, this is fairly infrequent with silencers, so this should give us good insight into the number acquired from dealers during the year.

For those who may be new to the NFA world, each firearm is registered and moves through commerce with one of five forms, with the circumstances of each operation determining which form is required. I have focused on three in particular as they will be most associated with general consumer, non-governmental activity:

Form 1: Application to Make and Register an NFA Firearm. Someone other than a licensed manufacturer produces a firearm. This is a permission slip. The applicant describes what is to be built, pays any applicable tax, and awaits approval before moving on. A Form 1 can be used by government agencies as well as the public, but we will still get a reasonably close view of the level of public activity. Before January 1, 2026, a $200 making tax was collected on building a silencer.

Form 2: Notice of Firearms Manufactured or Imported. Each manufacturer is required to report their build activity no later than the close of the next business day. Manufacturers are expected to build, so as the title implies, this is a birth certificate: a report of what came into the world on a given day, not a request for permission.

Form 4: Application to Transfer and Register NFA Firearm. This form is used primarily when the transfer is not between licensed dealers or government entities and may give us the best insight into transfers of silencers to collectors, hobbyists, and hunters. Before January 1, 2026, a $200 tax was collected on silencer transfers of this type.

2025 Set the Baseline for Silencer Demand

Manufacturing: Form 2 submissions to ATF in 2025 showed a low of 88,823 in February, with a high of 121,935 in December and an average of 104,949 per month, staying well above end-user demand. Applications to make and register, Form 1, submissions never exceeded 300 in any month and remained below 100 from May through December.

Taxed transfers: Form 4 submissions ranged from a low of 43,965 in October to a high of 81,110 in March. Interestingly, there was a slight uptick in November and December, which checked in at 52,064 and 60,052, respectively. In other words, even before the calendar flipped, there were signs buyers were still willing to move despite the old tax burden and the usual anxiety over wait times.

2026 Hit Like a Shockwave for Silencer Transfers

Manufacturing: Form 2 submissions to ATF in the first two months of 2026 at 152,837 in January and 173,075 in February for an average of 162,956 per month. Form 1 submissions soared to 13,248 in January and 6028 in February.

Non-taxable transfers: Form 4 submissions logged in at 240,321 in January, outpacing production for the first time during the review period, and 147,313 in February for an average of 193,817 thus far. NICS personnel at SHOT in January reported the average number of NFA checks per day increasing from 3000 in December to 6000 in January. With applications tripling and NICS doubling, it would appear we have a few opting to stock up on the bargains.

My Own Form 4 Test Drive Was Much Faster Than Expected

Having taken a multi-year break from the NFA process, I was one of those who was persuaded to revisit it after the tax was repealed. I recently went through the process to obtain my first centerfire silencer. The Form 3, transferring it from the seller to my local transfer dealer, was submitted on February 12 and approved on February 26. The Form 4 transferring the silencer to me was submitted by my FFL, who reported getting some transfers back in as little as one day, on March 10, and approved on March 13. That was much quicker than I expected, given the increased load currently in play and exponentially better than the 10-month or so wait on my last acquisition in 2018.

Final Take: The Wait-Time Monster Looks a Lot Smaller Now

Based on my admittedly anecdotal recent experience, if you have been sitting on the fence about buying something due to the possibility of a long wait, I would say make the jump. Due to political maneuvering last summer, the tax on silencers, SBRs, SBSs, and AOWs was repealed but the tax registration form that existed because of the tax remained in place so barring a court intervention on one of the numerous cases making their way through the system, we are currently compelled to complete a tax return attesting under penalty of perjury that we paid no tax on a non-taxable activity for two thirds of the firearms regulated by the NFA. If that burden were to be lifted, transfer times would become a non-issue for most NFA acquisitions.

That is the strange beauty of the current moment. The tax itself is gone for silencers, SBRs, SBSs, and AOWs, but the paperwork skeleton is still shambling around because Washington rarely misses an opportunity to keep the absurd parts. Even so, the combination of zero tax and surprisingly brisk approvals has made the barrier to entry look a whole lot less intimidating than it did the last time many of us went down this road.

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