Oklahoma Gun Shops Seem Done With Gatekeeping Silencers

For a few weeks there, it looked like Oklahoma gun shops were going to need a little more convincing before they started selling silencers the same way they sell guns, with a simple little federal background check. And honestly, you can understand why.

When the latest federal NFA ruling took effect August 13, a handful of gun shops immediately made a spectacle of it. Midnight sales. Immediately selling suppressors without the required NFA paperwork. Cameras rolling. People celebrating the end of a federal process that had been around since 1934.

It made for great publicity at those few OKC gun shops. It was also enough to make every other federally licensed gun dealer in America stop and say, “Wait a minute. Are we absolutely sure about this?”

Why Oklahoma Gun Shops Were Hesitant About The New Silencer Rules

Here's the why... An FFL (Federal Firearms Licensee gun shop) is a little different from the firearm industry influencers online yelling about big wins and constitutional rights. There has to be absolutely no doubt about how the process works.

Your favorite gun shop has a federal license to protect, so while the first wave of dealers jumped into the new world at 12:01 a.m., a lot of our local shops took the more cautious approach.

They wanted to know exactly what the court ruling meant, who was protected by it, and most importantly, what the ATF was going to say about all of this.

How To Buy A Silencer Under The New Oklahoma Rules

Now, a few weeks later, it appears the waiting was just overly cautious... If there is such a thing when it comes to firearms.

Across Oklahoma, you’re starting to see gun shops offering suppressors without the old Form 4, fingerprints, NFA registration, or waiting-for-the-government-to-finish-doing-whatever-it-does routine.

Instead, the process looks a whole lot more like buying an ordinary firearm.

You pick out your suppressor, fill out the federal Form 4473, pass the background check and, assuming everything else checks out, you can take it home.

There is, however, one interesting wrinkle.

Why Gun Shops Are Requiring GOA Membership

A lot of gun shops are requiring you to be a member of Gun Owners of America before they will do the transfer this way.

That isn't because Congress passed a law saying you have to join GOA to own a silencer. It has to do with the way the federal court's injunction was written.

The lawsuit was spearheaded by GOA and other plaintiffs, and the court blocked the federal government from enforcing the challenged NFA requirements against the plaintiffs and, where applicable, their members and customers.

So for a gun shop trying very hard not to become the next test case, seeing that GOA membership card provides some additional legal cover.

In other words, it's a workaround for the workaround.

What if you aren't already a GOA member? Our local dealers are working on that, helping you sign up. So that when you go through the regular 4473 background check and pass, you can skip that NFA paperwork and have your suppressor that same day.

What About Other NFA Items?

You may have heard that the court ruling also dealt with short-barreled rifles and short-barreled shotguns... It's a little complicated.

Technically, they were part of the larger legal fight over the NFA's registration requirements. But you still can't walk into your local gun shop expecting to buy an SBR or SBS the same way you're buying a suppressor.... Yet.

Gun shops are still treating SBR's and SBS's differently, and there are other federal laws involved with transferring short-barreled rifles and shotguns. The court ruling didn't simply turn every NFA item into a regular firearm overnight.

For now, the big win for Oklahoma gun owners is the simplification of getting a suppressor.

It took nearly a century to get here, and while there is still miles to go, it's a solid start and a big win for constitutionally protected American freedom.