08/16/2026
Attention silencer customers, and other FFL holders in the greater Evansville area. Please read all of this. Especially the legal warning, and the lower half.
🚨THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE. WE ARE NOT LAWYERS. NEVER TAKE LEGAL ADVICE FROM A BIRD CONSTELLATION WITH A TOMMY GUN ON THE INTERNET.🚨
The first silencer we sent out on a standard 4473 without a form 4 was on Thursday. That snowballed into basically getting wiped out same day(we do have more stock incoming, but more on that later). Avoided making a post because we didn’t want to get slammed, but that basically happened anyway from word of mouth.
The main reason for this post is because of the info we got yesterday(Friday). A few of our friends sent us posts from other places, or their experiences going in some local shops. We figured at least a handful of others around here would have joined us in this regained exercise of freedom. However, it appears we’re the only ones we know of doing this. If anyone knows of another in the general Evansville area, please let us know. We’re not making this post for bragging rights. It’s not about being first, the only one, or anything like that. It’s out of confusion. We spent all day yesterday asking “why?” The only things we can come up with are fear, confusion, or both from the other FFLs in the area. Which is totally understandable! The first one we had go out definitely felt strange, which is why we specifically asked our ATF agent if there were guidelines beforehand. His response to us was that there “weren’t any guidelines.”
So, why did we feel comfortable starting this new process? With our understanding, on August 5, a federal judge, the Honorable James Hendrix, ruled that the submission of an NFA Form 4, for certain individuals who are party to specific plaintiffs in the Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF, is essentially not lawful. That resulted in relief for those plaintiffs. We are party to the plaintiffs by organizational membership. There are a few organizations that this applies to. You can find that list online quite easily. The one we push for the most is Gun Owners of American, or GOA for short. We’re obviously individual members, but “Corvus LLC” is also a corporate member of GOA. Under the plain English ruling made by Judge Hendrix, this seems as basic as it gets.
Why did we not wait for ATF guidelines, like everyone else is doing? Because the ATF had their chance. They knew going into the case that there was a chance they could lose. Then they lost. Judge Hendrix gave them a stay on the ruling for 7 days, allowing them to ask for a longer stay, pending appeal, before the relief went into effect. They did not ask to extend the stay, and everything went into effect at 12:00am Thursday morning, August 13. Guidelines have been begged for, to only hear crickets from the ATF. They not only had the 7 day stay, they had weeks, if not months knowing they may need contingency guidelines for something like this, and you expect me to believe they’ve yet to have a single meeting on the subject? In my opinion, THIS IS A SCARE TACTIC. One implemented to prolong this idiotic game of chicken between the ATF and FFLs, effectively denying individuals their right to protection by nobody knowing how to proceed. And, no, I don’t care about the form 4 wait times being shorter than they were years ago. A right delayed is a right denied. It’s still multiple days, and not instant, like NICS. Obviously, NICS occasionally throws people on delay, and denies people by mistake. However, we’re talking about the minority, not every single one, like a form 4. We want it gone, too. One thing at a time here.
How do we know which customers to only do a standard 4473 with? We simply ask them if they’re a GOA member. If they say “yes”, we ask to see the proof. If they say “no”, we help them sign up to be a GOA member on the spot with a donation of 25 for a membership. We then thank them for donating to GOA, an organization who actually fights for our rights, and we give them a one time discount of 30 off their silencer. FFLs, the paperwork is the same as any other 4473 you’ve done after the stamp approval from a form 4. The only real difference now is Section C, column 28, the box does NOT get checked because you do send it off for a NICS background check. Select “other” like you have in the past, almost exactly the same as if it’s a stripped lower receiver. Additionally, we like to use column 32 “For Use By Licensee” under Section E to record something like “customer showed proof of being a GOA member”, or if they happen to be party to another plaintiff from the case.
FFLs, if you’re not already, remember to absolutely get a corporate membership with GOA to be covered under this ruling, and fully protect your business and employees! If you want help, or are curious about getting a corporate membership with GOA, feel free to message, call, or email us at [email protected]. We’ll share everything we know with you. Obviously, again, we aren’t lawyers, and would never claim to be, so this isn’t legal advice. Send everything about this case to your lawyer, and see what they have to say. Here’s the thing, though, Silencer Shop, PSA, and these other places doing this are multimillion dollar companies. Do you think they’d be willing to risk their licenses, and entire businesses if their lawyers hadn’t already cleared everything? If your UofL degree having Evansville lawyer can find something their lawyers didn’t, I would love to meet them asap! But, realistically, you should run it by some lawyers to see what’s up.
Why are we calling attention to this, and trying to get other FFLs in the area involved? From a business standpoint, this is stupid. Don’t get me wrong, we absolutely want all of your business, and basically have a monopoly recipe to immediately sell out of product as soon as it comes in. It’s not about business, or competition right now. As a community, we have an opportunity to retake ground that hasn’t been seen in 92 years. The road has been cleared by a federal judge. Fire everything, throttle open, we need to spearhead these dominos while we can, solidify this to the point of no return, and push for more ground. Again, we fully understand your fear and caution, but our side has done their due diligence. When stuff like this happens, it’s time to send it.
