U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix’s Aug. 5 ruling barred enforcement of challenged NFA provisions against the plaintiffs in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF, as well as their members and customers. The provisions govern the transfer, registration, and making of suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and certain other weapons regulated under the 1934 law.

Hendrix gave the Trump administration seven days to seek an emergency stay from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit before the injunction took effect. That deadline passed this week without a filing.

Johnston said DOJ should not only allow the decision to stand but extend its effect beyond the organizations and individuals covered by the ruling. “It’s not fair that you should have to buy a Gun Owners of America membership in order to exercise your Second Amendment rights,” he said.

The Justice Department still has 60 days from the judgment to file a conventional appeal, leaving open the possibility that the legal fight could continue into early October. A spokesperson for the DOJ has said it is still assessing the ruling’s impact, according to a report from The Hill.

Hendrix’s ruling followed Congress’s elimination last year of the NFA’s $200 making and transfer tax for suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and certain other weapons. The judge concluded that, once Congress zeroed out those taxes, the accompanying registration and transfer requirements could no longer be justified under Congress’s taxing power.

The court also did not reach the plaintiffs’ Second Amendment arguments, nor did it wipe the NFA from the books. Hendrix expressly declined to issue a universal injunction, meaning the decision protects the plaintiffs and the covered people and businesses connected to them, rather than every gun owner nationwide. State laws regulating suppressors and other NFA firearms also remain in place.

That narrow scope has produced a fresh set of questions for the industry. Dealers must determine which customers and transactions are covered by the injunction, while buyers are left waiting for clarity on transfers, recordkeeping, and the status of firearms already registered with the ATF.

“They do have to tell gun stores something,” Johnston said of ATF. Citing questions over paperwork and how dealers should transfer covered firearms. “There’s a million questions here,” he added.

The uncertainty has heightened anxiety among Second Amendment activists who fear the administration could still change course. The Federalist’s Sean Davis reported that Brett Shumate, the assistant attorney general leading DOJ’s Civil Division, was working behind the scenes still to secure an appeal.

Davis claimed in a post on X Thursday that “multiple Trump admin sources tell me Brett Shumate, who runs the DOJ civil division, is the DOJ official behind efforts to appeal the suppressor/NFA decision and force continued registration of suppressors.”

Shumate signed the government’s briefs defending the ATF in the case, though the DOJ has not publicly confirmed or denied Davis’s report. The Washington Examiner reached out for comment.

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Johnston, who thanked Trump for being “the most pro-Second Amendment president ever,” said he “would urge anyone within the administration to stand down and not to appeal and not to fight it.” He argued that the DOJ should instead adopt Hendrix’s ruling as the rule for all law-abiding gun owners, not only GOA members and the other protected parties.

Gun control groups have warned that allowing the ruling to take effect weakens longstanding safeguards for suppressors and short-barreled firearms. For now, however, the DOJ’s inaction has delivered a limited but meaningful victory to the plaintiffs — and left gun-rights groups watching closely for what comes next.