Well this is curious...silencer parts now require a form 4?

[Jmacken37]

I hope I'm reading this incorrectly...

I've bolded the important parts.

Manufacturers are going to have to start selling their cans with all conceivable attachments or customers will have to send their cans back to get a piston swapped?


Silencer Markings and Registration Requirements


Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(24), 27 § CFR
478.11, and 27 § CFR 479.11, the terms “firearms
silencer” or “firearms muffler” mean “any device
for silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of
a portable firearm, including any combination of
parts, designed or redesigned, and intended for use
in assembling or fabricating a firearm silencer or
firearm muffler, and any part intended only for use
in such assembly or fabrication.” Such parts
include, but are not limited to, these terms: outer
tube, baffles, front end cap, and rear end cap.
Therefore, a device, a combination of parts, and any
part intended only for use in assembling a silencer
are “firearm silencers” and each a “firearm” under
both the Gun Control Act (GCA) and the National
Firearms Act (NFA).
Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 923(i), 26 U.S.C. §5842(a),
27 CFR § 478.92, and 27 CFR § 479.102, each
licensed manufacturer is required to mark each
firearm manufactured with a serial number, the
name of the manufacturer, the city and State of
manufacture, the model (if such designation has
been made), and the caliber or gauge. Because each
“part” is a “firearm,” these statutes require that each
part or component of a silencer be marked with the
required information. However, because of the
difficulty, expense and limited public safety value
associated with this, ATF has never required that
each component of a silencer be marked when
possessed during the production process by Federal
firearms licensees paying special occupational tax
(FFL/SOT). This enforcement policy extends to
parts made by FFLs/SOTs for the sole purposes of
repairing a registered silencer.
Accordingly, an FFL/SOT (Class 2 manufacturer of
firearms) who manufactures a silencer part for the
sole purpose of repairing a registered silencer 1)
is not required to mark the part; 2) is not required to
register the part on ATF Form 2; 3) is not required
to submit and receive an approved ATF Form 3 to
transfer the part to FFL/SOT; and 4) is not required
to maintain records of manufacture or other
acquisition and records of disposition (A&D)
pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 923(g), 26 U.S.C. § 5843,
27 CFR § 478.123, and 27 CFR § 479.131,
provided the part is transferred to an FFL/SOT for
the purpose of repairing a registered silencer.
If someone other than an FFL/SOT wants to acquire
a silencer part, that part must be marked in
accordance with regulations and registered by filing
a Form 2. A Form 5 must be filed if the part is being
acquired by a government entity. A Form 4 must be
filed if the part is being acquired by an unlicensed
person or FFL who is not qualified under the NFA.


https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/ne...-2021/download

[Dropsith]

I dont think that is anything new, they are just quoting the existing law there. They've generally not applied that to mean pistons, mounts etc. Consistency is hardly applicable to the ATF, though, so who knows what the future holds.

'Silencer parts are silencers' is the current state of ATF interpretation, but boosters & mounts aren't silencer parts, and so aren't silencers. Makes sense if you don't think about it, right?

[Jmacken37]

I don't like them mentioning "front end cap."

[SecondAmend]

I don't like them mentioning "front end cap."

Lines of text that would comprise many barrels of ink if printed have been written on firearms blogs with respect to the 'front end cap'.

MHO, YMMV, etc. Be well.

[slimshady]

This is likely just part of their cracking down on "solvent trap" and "fuel filter" sellers who make things that can be converted into silencer parts.

[JohnFreeman]

This is likely just part of their cracking down on "solvent trap" and "fuel filter" sellers who make things that can be converted into silencer parts.

That has been so fruitful for them in the past!

[DINK]

That provision was added to the law back in the early 80s, after some enterprising individuals started selling Sionics-type silencer kits with all the parts needed except the outer tubes. By odd coincidence there was another company located right next to them that was selling tube sets. You could leaf through the old Shotgun News and find the two ads a few pages apart. The feds raided the company or companies and grabbed their shipping records, then spent the next few months confiscating the kits all over the country. They asked congress to add the wording to the existing law to prevent similar shenanigans.

More recently, the legitimate silencer manufacturers have worked out a legal way to sell different attachment "modules" and I don't know the exact legal mechanism they used, but it's a good thing they have worked it out with BATF. I have no idea what the status of end caps is.