Updated October 9, 2026, after the ATF’s new NFA guidance.
We’ve had a lot of questions this week about suppressors, short-barreled rifles and the new ATF rules, so here is the full picture.
First, the part about us
Nona Guns does not currently hold the Special Occupational Tax (SOT) registration that federal law still requires of any dealer who sells NFA items — suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns and “any other weapons.” The ATF’s new policy did not remove that requirement. Our SOT will not be in place before the end of November, so until then we cannot sell, order or transfer any NFA item, even though the distributors we work with now ship them. We’ll announce it the day it’s active.
Now, what actually changed, and what it means in Florida.
What the ATF did
Congress cut the federal tax on suppressors, SBRs, SBSs and AOWs to $0 in 2025. A federal court then ruled that, with no tax left to collect, the registration and approval parts of the National Firearms Act could no longer be enforced for those items. Effective October 9, 2026, the ATF decided to apply that ruling to everyone, nationwide. It will no longer require a Form 1 to build one, a Form 4 to buy one, a tax stamp, or an entry in the federal NFA registry. You can still register voluntarily if you want to, and the ATF will process it.
What did not change
These items are still “firearms” under the Gun Control Act. You still buy them from a licensed dealer in your own state, fill out a Form 4473 and pass a NICS background check. Prohibited persons still cannot own them. Dealers still need the SOT to handle them. Machine guns and destructive devices keep the full NFA process and the $200 tax. Taking an SBR or SBS across state lines still requires an approved Form 20, registered or not. And the ATF has said plainly that if the court ruling is overturned, Congress restores a tax, or the policy is withdrawn, enforcement resumes — and there is no guarantee that unregistered items will be grandfathered or given an amnesty to register.
The Florida question
Florida law is silent on suppressors. There is no state statute restricting them, so in Florida a suppressor is now treated like any other firearm: a 4473 and a background check at the dealer, and you walk out with it. The same goes for AOWs.
Short-barreled rifles and shotguns are a different matter. Florida Statute 790.221 makes it a second-degree felony — up to 15 years — to possess an SBR or SBS. The only exception is for firearms that are “lawfully owned and possessed under provisions of federal law.” For ninety years that exception meant one thing: the gun was registered with the ATF on an approved Form 1 or Form 4. That registration was your proof that Florida’s exception applied to you.
Here is the problem. The ATF has stopped requiring registration, but Florida has not changed its statute, and no Florida court, the Attorney General or FDLE has said whether an unregistered SBR counts as “lawfully owned under federal law.” The ATF itself has said it cannot answer that question for any state. So a Floridian who takes home an unregistered SBR today is relying on a prosecutor or a judge to read the exception generously. Maybe they will. Nobody can promise it.
The practical answer, until Florida speaks, is this: in Florida, buy and use suppressors freely under the new rules. For an SBR or SBS, keep doing the voluntary Form 4 (or Form 1 if you build it). It costs nothing now, the ATF still processes it, and an approved form is the one document that unquestionably puts you inside Florida’s exception, whatever the courts decide later. The wait is the price of certainty.
This is general information, not legal advice for your situation. If you own or plan to buy an SBR in Florida, talk to a Florida firearms attorney before relying on the new federal policy.
— Nona Guns