Government Shutdown 2025: What Gun Owners Need to Know

When Washington takes a SHHHHH, your rights shouldn’t get flushed down the drain. Yet here we are again. Another government shutdown, another reminder that law-abiding Americans are left waiting while politicians in D.C. play games with your freedoms.

On October 1, 2025, the federal government officially ran out of money because Congress failed to pass a budget. When shutdowns happen in Washington, “non-essential” agencies shut their doors, and guess what the ATF’s NFA branch is considered? Non-essential. That means suppressor approvals, Form 1s, Form 4s, and dealer transfers (Form 3) are delayed – and you know what they say abouts rights delayed... 

This isn’t new. In 2018–2019, the country saw the longest shutdown in U.S. history, 35 straight days of distress. That was the last full-scale shutdown, but we’ve had smaller pauses since. Every single time, gun owners are told to sit tight and wait. Your rights take a back seat to political brinksmanship. 

A shutdown is supposed to be about spending bills and budget fights. But if you’re a gun owner, the ripple effects are personal.

When ATF examiners are sent home, NFA forms stop moving. Your place in line is frozen. And while eForms stay online — you can still submit applications — nothing actually gets reviewed until Congress decides to get its act together.

Think about how insane that is. We’re talking about a constitutional right, the right to keep and bear arms, being slowed or suspended not because of anything you did wrong, but because bureaucrats are arguing over budget numbers (funded by your tax dollars).

That’s not freedom. That’s dysfunction. 

The National Firearms Act has been on the books since 1934, and it was discriminatory and oppressive from the very beginning. Nearly a century later, it’s still being used as an excuse to slow-roll your rights.

The fact that suppressors are even tied to federal funding deadlines should offend every gun owner. Your Second Amendment rights shouldn’t depend on whether Congress passes a spending resolution. And they shouldn’t be left in the hands of an agency that can shut down one week and be declared “essential” the next.

At the Silencer Shop Foundation, we give a shhh because we’re tired of watching politicians turn your rights into bargaining chips. The right to protect your hearing, to hunt with your kids without damaging their ears, to enjoy shooting without unnecessary blast and recoil — none of that should be paused because bureaucrats are arguing about how to spend your tax money.  

That’s why the Silencer Shop Foundation filed a groundbreaking lawsuit against the ATF and DOJ. We’re suing to remove suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and more from the NFA once and for all.

The solution isn’t to “hope” the next shutdown doesn’t last too long. The solution is to make sure suppressors aren’t subject to shutdowns in the first place. If these items weren’t wrapped up in nearly 100-year-old red tape, then every budget fight wouldn’t put your rights on hold.

We don’t just talk about rights, we fight for them. That’s what the Big Beautiful Lawsuit is about. It’s not about left vs. right, red vs. blue. It’s about a government that has overstepped for too long, and a law-abiding community that has had enough. 

The government may keep taking shutdowns. But together, we can take back our rights.

At the Silencer Shop Foundation, we’re in the courts, on Capitol Hill, and in the states fighting to restore your Second Amendment freedoms. But we can’t do it alone.

Donate today to support the lawsuit, fuel this fight, and help us remove suppressors and other NFA items from the broken system once and for all.

Because when Washington takes a SHHHHH, we give a shhh and we’ll never stop fighting for your rights.