The ATF Finalized More NFA Forms in Eight Months of 2026 Than in Any Full Year It Has Published. Suppressors Were 98 Percent of August’s Transfers.
ATF’s own processing page shows 2.12 million NFA forms finalized through Sept. 3, 1.17 million Form 4 approvals and 6.9 million silencers on the registry. Here’s what each count measures, and what it means for buyers.
2026 suppressor registrations have exploded, having already pushed the ATF’s National Firearms Act paperwork past any full year in the bureau’s published tables. There’s still four months still to go. The TF’s Current Processing Times page reveal the numbers, which the bureau updated September 29 with calendar-year data through September 3.
The ATF had finalized 2,120,708 NFA forms so far in 2026. The biggest full year on ATF’s Data and Statistics page was FY2025, at 1,507,443 forms processed.
So, in the first eight months of 2026, we’ve already beat the record year by 613,265 forms (41%). Great job, America! September through December haven’t even been counted yet.
The two tables: ATF publishes the counts in two places, though they don’t measure exactly the same thing. The fiscal-year table counts forms that were “processed” from October through September; the processing-times page counts calendar-year forms “finalized.” The ATF defines those as approved, disapproved, withdrawn or returned without action.
The calendars differ a by three months. The definitions differ by a single word. So, the comparison is close but not exact. Even if you read it in the stricted sense, the 2,031,421 forms ATF has approved this year clear FY2025’s total on their own.
What a Form 4 counts: Form 4 is the application a buyer files to take a registered NFA item from a dealer. Whereas Form 1 is the application to make one yourself.
Through September 3, buyers submitted 1,234,158 Form 4s where the ATF approved 1,174,539 of them. Of the 1,213,723 Form 4s it finalized, 96.8 percent were approvals. Form 1s ran 221,501 submitted and 177,452 approved, and 82 percent of the 216,423 finalized were approvals.
That’s a lot of numbers, don’t get lost in the math. Here’s an easy chart to help you follow along.
Where suppressors fit: ATF breaks out silencers for the latest month only. In August the bureau received 266,897 NFA applications, 130,969 of them Form 4 suppressor applications, and it finalized 158,993 Form 4s that month. Of those, 156,089 were suppressors – 98.2%.
The year-to-date table doesn’t carry a silencer split, so the full-year suppressor count isn’t printed anywhere on the page. If August’s share holds across the year, suppressors account for roughly 1.15 million of 2026’s Form 4 approvals; the safe statement is “well over a million.”
The queue behind those numbers is small. ATF listed 22,911 actionable NFA applications at the end of August, and the median wait on an individual eForm 4 was five days.
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Add on GoogleThe registry: The same page prints what’s in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, the NFRTR. As of September 3 it held 6,905,213 silencers, 1,258,554 short-barreled rifles, 210,604 short-barreled shotguns and 97,373 AOWs, excluding items reported destroyed, exported or voided. Silencers outnumber SBRs nearly five and a half to one.
One of the figure you may see elsewhere – the silencer row is split by the form that registered the item, and the Form 4 column, suppressors registered through a tax-paid transfer to a buyer, holds 4,859,048.
That is where a “4.9 million suppressors” number comes from; it’s the consumer-transfer column, not the registry. Measured against it, this year’s 1,174,539 Form 4 approvals equal about 24 percent of every suppressor ever transferred on that form. Measured against the full 6.9 million registry, about 17 percent. Both are true.
September’s early read: ATF’s September page hasn’t posted yet, but NSSF’s October 6 release covers the NICS side: 149,614 NFA background checks ran in September, up 129.2 percent from 65,273 in September 2025. Texas led with 18,852, then Florida (11,771), Georgia (7,337), North Carolina (7,336) and Pennsylvania (6,102). Those are the usual suspects, there’s a lot of freedom loving Americans in those states.
Those FBI checks are tied to Form 1 and Form 4 applications, a different count than ATF’s forms, which is why they don’t match the bureau’s monthly totals; we walked through that gap in our September NICS breakdown.
Dead Air Nomad-30 (.30 cal, 6.5 in., 5/8×24 direct thread)
A mainstream .30-caliber can on a HUB mount, and the $200 stamp that used to ride on it would have been 27 percent of the KYGUNCO price. Covered buyers take one home on a 4473 while the injunction holds; everyone else is looking at a five-day median eForm 4.
Why it’s happening: Of course, the recent developments regarding the $200 tax stamp on NFA items is why there’s been such a surge in registrations. They’re $200 cheaper to buy now!
The ATF told NSSF it took roughly 150,000 eForms on New Year’s Day alone, against a 2025 norm of about 2,500 a day. That was followed up when Judge James Wesley Hendrix in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF permanently enjoined enforcement of NFA registration for those items against the plaintiffs, their members and their customers.
The Justice Department told Congress in a September 24 letter that it “has determined not to file an appeal,” and the appeal window closed October 5, as we covered in our no-appeal story.
ATF’s May count, as NSSF reported from the bureau’s data in August, was 121,117 suppressor Form 4s received; August, the first full month under the injunction, was 130,969. Buyers outside the ruling’s reach, in states that tie their own suppressor laws to federal registration or at shops that aren’t covered, kept filing, and a five-day median wait makes the paper path cheap enough that few seem to be waiting on guidance.
The fair objection: These are form counts, which means that some of the numbers are what was withdrawn-and-refiled showing up twice in “submitted.” “Finalized” includes rejections, and one buyer can register five cans in a month. That’s true, but that doesn’t change the clear direction when headed in.
The approvals column alone, 1,174,539 Form 4s, is the cleanest number on the page. It’s the one that beats every prior year.
Our take: Well, if you lower the cost of entry on a product, more people are going to buy it. The $200 stamp was 27 percent of the price on a $733 can. The wait has also gone from months to days. I think the suppressor market is still running on the price cut more than on the court ruling, because the ruling’s coverage is narrow and the Form 4 numbers didn’t dip after it.
The real policy question is whether Congress finishes the job. The Hearing Protection Act, H.R. 404, would remove suppressors from the NFA entirely. The main argument proponents make is that it’s hearing protection – why do I need to register hearing protection? The bill has 151 cosponsors and has sat in the Ways and Means and Judiciary committees since January 2025 with no recorded action. The data makes the bill’s case.
What to watch: October 12 is the next big important date. That’s when the DOJ’s response on how far the injunction reaches is due under Hendrix’s October 2 order. With the “public guidance” the ATF told the court it is finalizing expected alongside it. ATF’s next monthly update should carry September’s forms and a fresh registry count. And the NSSF’s November release will be the first to report NFA checks separately.
Did the $0 stamp or the injunction move you to buy a can this year? Tell us in the comments.
Shopping a suppressor while approvals clear in days? Start with our Best AR-15 Suppressors guide, and sign up below to get ATF’s September numbers the day they post.
Sources: ATF, Current Processing Times (CY2026 data as of Sept. 3, 2026; page updated Sept. 29, 2026); ATF, Data and Statistics (NFA forms processed by fiscal year); NSSF, Adjusted NICS and NFA checks for September 2026 (Oct. 6, 2026); NSSF, ATF NFA Wait Times Plunge as Applications Surge (Aug. 20, 2026); NSSF, New Year Buying Surge (Jan. 6, 2026); Solicitor General letter to Sen. Grassley under 28 U.S.C. § 530D (Sept. 24, 2026, filed Oct. 1 as Dkt. 145-1, Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF, N.D. Tex. 6:25-cv-00056); H.R. 404, Hearing Protection Act (119th Congress; cosponsor count via GovTrack). Charts and table are house graphics built from ATF data, public domain.
Justin Trump is the managing editor and owner of CAT Outdoors. The son of a Vietnam veteran, he’s a Certified Glock Armorer, an avid gun enthusiast and 2A advocate. He holds two firearm patents for the CAT M4 and Talon tools. When not managing CAT Outdoors, he enjoys spending time with his family and friends, rooting for Michigan sports teams, and serving his church.
