Drummond asks ATF to halt enforcement of struck-down firearms provisions

OKLAHOMA CITY (Aug. 14, 2026) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond is asking the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to advise in writing what steps it will take to stop enforcing provisions of the National Firearms Act (NFA) that a federal court declared unconstitutional last week in a case where Oklahoma was a plaintiff.

On Aug. 5, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled in Silencer Shop Foundation, et al. v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, et al. that the NFA’s registration and application requirements for suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns and certain other weapons exceed Congress’s enumerated powers under Article I. Oklahoma was one of 15 plaintiff states. When Congress eliminated the taxes on those firearms last year, the court held, it also eliminated the constitutional foundation for the paperwork regime built to collect them. The court entered a permanent injunction barring enforcement against the plaintiffs.

“This is a win for the Second Amendment and for the constitutional limits on federal power. No law-abiding Oklahoman should have to be fingerprinted, photographed and cleared by Washington to buy a suppressor, least of all to help collect a tax that no longer exists,” Drummond said. 

Drummond and eight other attorneys general from plaintiff states sent a letter yesterday to the Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking clarity for any person in their states planning to purchase a gun suppressor. Assuming no stay of the ruling issues, the coalition’s position is that the relevant NFA provisions are enjoined and that no paperwork beyond the ordinary Form 4473 background check is required.

“I encourage the ATF to proactively communicate with purchasers and dealers about the registration requirements that no longer apply to suppressors,” Drummond said. “Oklahomans deserve clarity from the federal government in the wake of this ruling.”

Drummond and the coalition asked the DOJ several questions in the letter, including:

• How will purchasers and dealers know that the government’s applicable registration requirements are no longer enforceable in the plaintiff states?
• Will notice be provided on the ATF website that enforcement of the registration requirements is enjoined in the plaintiff states?
• Will all firearms dealers and relevant manufacturers located in plaintiff states be notified directly and promptly by the ATF that they no longer need to comply with the relevant registration requirements?

Drummond said if the government is not taking steps to remove the registration requirements, he would consider it a violation of the Court’s Memorandum Opinion and Order.