Since the enactment of the National Firearms Act (NFA) in 1934, one of the main barriers to entry of sound suppressor ownership was the considerable time and monetary investment to procure one. Enactment of the NFA - spurred on by gang activity during the Prohibition Era and accelerated by the attempted assassination of President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt - codified suppressors as highly-regulated items, and lumped them in with machine guns, concealable weapons (SBR’s & short-barreled shotguns), and AOW’s. This classification meant that civilian ownership of suppressors now had to be monitored, tracked, and approved by the ATF. This is also where the 16” minimum barrel-length requirement came from, and the subsequent pistol brace debacle.
Most civilians could see the logic behind putting stricter regulations on things like machine guns, whose technology had advanced considerably since the days of the founding fathers; and while the likes of Thomas Jefferson may have argued otherwise, it seemed like a reasonable safety consideration. The same could not be said for sound suppressors. Here was a product that, on its own, had zero capabilities to cause any harm to anyone, and whose sole purpose was to increase safety for responsible citizens by protecting the user’s hearing, an invaluable asset in real-world conflicts. The ATF had decided that these harmless, hearing-saving objects needed to be tracked indefinitely, and their owners vetted to an insane level, the same level they vet civilians who wish to purchase a machine gun. Furthermore, the ATF took this opportunity to make the process as slow and as painful as possible, often causing 1 year (or longer) wait times for ATF approval. This is the way things were for nearly the past decade, but that is all changing…
Towards the end of February of 2024, customers started reporting that the long wait times they had come to expect from the ATF for NFA Form 4 approvals didn’t manifest for their recent suppressor purchase. The firearms community was buzzing with users reporting sub-one-month approval times, and some that were approved in as little as a few days. Most thought this was a glitch in the system, skepticism ran rampant, but the proof was there, something had kicked the ATF into high gear.
In March of 2024, the ATF put out a statement that it was making some adjustments to the NFA eForms approval process, specifically pertaining to suppressors being that the vast majority of Form 4 application requests pertain to these items. These changes have brought approval times down from 9+ months to just a few weeks - sometimes just a few days or even hours! The ATF also confirmed that this was not a glitch, and the changes were here to stay!
The change comes mostly from their streamlining of the individual filing option as well as batch approvals for users who have more than one suppressor on a form at any given time. In the past, multiple suppressors had to individually be approved, and the process ran through from end to end for each item. With this new process, as soon as one suppressor is approved, they’re all approved in a batch, which has decreased wait times for multiple buyers. The individual filing process is now, by far, the most expedient method to receive a suppressor, and the vast majority of ~1 week approval times are being submitted in this fashion. Users filing their suppressor under a trust may not experience the same rapidity of approval, but the ATF has announced they are streamlining this process as well by expediting standardized trust forms.
Most of the large suppressor retailers already use some form of standardized trust, including Capitol Armory®, our partner for our Silencers To Your Door™ Program. This simplified suppressor buying process is one of the easiest ways to get a Griffin silencer regardless of your location. This program also ensures G.I. members have access to their discounted pricing in the event their local dealer chooses not to participate. With the improved eForms processing, customers are seeing their suppressor arrive at their house in as little as one week after submitting all necessary documentation and getting their Form 4 approval!
Long story short, there has never been a better time to buy a silencer than RIGHT NOW, and there are no finer silencers than those from Griffin Armament, combat veteran owned and operated suppressor manufacturer since 2005.