President Trump has made the call himself: the Justice Department will not appeal a landmark federal court victory that knocked out major federal registration requirements for suppressors and other firearms covered by the case.

That decision leaves the ruling in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF standing — and it tells career lawyers inside DOJ that the administration will not spend its time trying to rebuild a regulatory structure the court found unconstitutional.

Gun owners have heard plenty of promises from Washington. Here, the result is already in the court record, and President Trump chose to preserve it.

Gun Owners of America quickly thanked President Trump after the news broke:

CBS News reports that President Trump personally directed DOJ not to appeal the August ruling. The outlet says a Justice Department official confirmed the department intends to notify Congress of that decision, while an agency spokesperson said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will issue guidance to implement the court’s order.

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The report also says the president told Republican members of Congress in recent weeks that he would make sure DOJ did not contest the decision. That matters because some career and political appointees inside the department reportedly wanted an appeal and argued that the ruling was already complicating federal firearms prosecutions.

The administration’s answer is now clear. The government will enforce the laws that remain in place, but it will not ask an appeals court to revive the registration provisions Judge James Wesley Hendrix struck down.

The White House stressed that prohibited persons remain prohibited from buying firearms and that federal criminal laws governing unlawful possession still apply. Machine guns and destructive devices also remain regulated under the National Firearms Act.

The ATF’s next move is the practical question for gun owners and dealers. The groups that won the case say formal guidance is overdue:

The case began after President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which reduced the federal making and transfer tax on suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns and certain other items to zero.

The remaining registration system had long been defended as part of Congress’s taxing power. Once Congress eliminated the tax, the plaintiffs argued, the government could no longer use that taxing power to justify the accompanying registration and approval machinery.

Judge Hendrix agreed.

In his August 5 opinion and order, the judge found that the challenged provisions could not be sustained under the taxing power because the amended law no longer generates revenue from the untaxed firearms at issue. He imposed a permanent injunction against enforcement of the specified NFA provisions for the plaintiffs, their members and, where applicable, their customers — including current and future members and customers.

The court stayed its own ruling for seven days to give the government a chance to seek emergency relief. DOJ did not do so, and the injunction took effect on August 13.

The later deadline to file a full appeal had remained open. President Trump’s personal decision now closes an important chapter in the fight.

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The Second Amendment Foundation explains that the ruling does not erase the entire National Firearms Act or every firearms restriction tied to it. The injunction blocks ATF and DOJ from enforcing specific registration, making, transfer and identification provisions against the named plaintiffs and, where the order provides, their members and customers.

The organization notes that Judge Hendrix did not place a geographic limit on the final judgment. He also wrote the protection to cover current and future members and customers of the organizational plaintiffs, a detail that gives the ruling significance well beyond the individuals originally named in the lawsuits.

At the same time, the foundation cautions that machine guns and destructive devices remain regulated. State bans and state-level registration requirements also remain in force, and dealers may still choose a more conservative process while federal implementation questions are being sorted out.

The foundation says the injunction took effect at 12:01 a.m. Central on August 13 after the seven-day stay expired. Its guidance urges gun owners and dealers to understand exactly which plaintiff relationship covers them and to consult qualified counsel where the federal order and state law interact.

That distinction is important. This is a sweeping victory for the people and organizations protected by the injunction, but it is not a nationwide repeal of every federal or state firearms rule.

Silencer Shop says suppressors and certain “any other weapons” purchased through its network can now move through the ordinary Gun Control Act process in states that do not impose their own NFA-style requirements. Buyers still complete the standard Form 4473 and must pass the normal federal background check.

The company’s current guidance says short-barreled rifles and short-barreled shotguns still require a Form 4 because of separate provisions in the Gun Control Act. It also says state law can still require the traditional process or prohibit particular items altogether.

In other words, the biggest immediate change is not the disappearance of background checks. It is the removal of the federal NFA registration, fingerprinting and advance-approval process for covered suppressor and AOW transactions where the injunction and state law allow it.

For decades, Washington treated ordinary citizens as if exercising a constitutional right required first asking permission, submitting fingerprints and waiting for bureaucratic approval.

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President Trump’s decision means his Justice Department will not go to court to preserve that burden after the legal foundation beneath it collapsed.

The reaction from Second Amendment advocates was unmistakable:

There will still be lawsuits, regulatory questions and state-by-state complications. Congress could also revisit the law in the future.

None of that changes what happened here.

A federal judge ruled against a 90-year-old registration regime. President Trump had the power to order an appeal.

He chose not to do it.

Now the ATF needs to publish clear guidance, stop leaving dealers and lawful buyers in limbo, and implement the court’s order faithfully.

That is what elections having consequences looks like.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

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