For everyone living in a free state, suppressors are some of the year’s hottest tickets! From making shooting more comfortable and safer to just the pleasure of exercising your rights, silencers are awesome in every way.
But thanks to the National Firearms Act and the BATFE, they aren’t as easy to acquire as they should be.
Lucky for us, there are people out there doing the heavy lifting for us and making the process easier.
I met up with Capitol Armory at CANCON 2022 and got a crash course on how exactly it's managing to mail suppressors to our homes. It might not be Amazon fast, but it’s much cooler.
Operating in Texas since 2008, Capitol Armory is an FFL and dealer for just about anything you can legally own, but its focus is on helping navigate the complex world of the NFA.
Machine guns, short-barreled anything, or suppressors – Capitol Armory is there to help you out. And it has come up with a pretty awesome system to do it.
With FFLs in 38 states and pending FFLs in every other non-ban state, it will soon have the capability to service any NFA transaction anyone in the country could want.
Obtaining NFA items depends a bit on what kind of NFA item you want. The paperwork and process for manufacturing a short-barreled rifle are different from buying a suppressor, but there are a lot of similarities.
Bottom line – you choose what kind of NFA item you want, you fill out paperwork, pay for your item, pay for the NFA stamp tax ($200), pay any transfer fees (anything from free to a couple of hundred dollars), you or your FFL/SOT submit the paperwork to the feds, and you wait for your item to be approved before you can pick it up.
For suppressors specifically, you fill out ATF Form 4, your FFL/SOT fills out part of it also, you hand over a fingerprint card and passport-style photos, and you fork over your money for the stamp, fees, and can, then the dealer electronically submits or mails your paperwork to the ATF.
And you have to do that every. Single. Time.
With Capitol Armory, there are better options.
Often, when gun owners buy their first anything they lie to themselves saying this is the one and only one they'll purchase. Our first and only 1911. Our first and only AR-15. Our first and only high-end scope. Or our first and only suppressor.
I don’t know about you, but it’s never my only one.
Once you enter the world of the NFA and you overcome that initial anxiety about the federal paperwork, you quickly discover suppressors and short barrels are excellent and reasonably affordable.
The old-school method of procuring NFA items is a pain in the ass since you have to repeat all of the steps every time. And that is where Capitol Armory makes everything a lot better.
Instead of being a normal dealer that forces you to do every step all over again every time you buy, Capitol Armory keeps your information securely stored and ready for next time.
Submit your paperwork, fingerprints, and photos once – and you’ll never need to do it again. Instead, Capitol Armory will digitize it and save it, so all you have to do is select the item you want and click buy. And probably click some order confirmations, but you get the point.
Plus, their system is set up with the modern age in mind. Its store is online for you to browse and buy from. You can mail them your fingerprints and photos. It takes electronic payment for your cart, ATF tax stamp, and anything else needed. It even has the ability to accept digitally signed forms for the e-file Form 4.
The company doesn’t stop there. What makes Capitol Armory extra special, not only do you never need to redo all of your paperwork again, but it will ship your new suppressor directly to your door. No driving to an FFL/SOT miles away, no standing in line, no human interaction required.
The magic of Capitol Armory comes from the fact that it has an FFL in nearly every state, with the few remaining states pending. Buy through Capitol Armory, and your items are sent to their location within your state. Because it is the dealer and transferer and has all your information on file, once the ATF approves your paperwork, Capitol Armory can ship your suppressor directly to you. No pick-up is required.
Instead of NFA items being kind of scary and definitely a headache, Capitol Armory makes dealing with the federal government barely more trouble than checking out of Amazon.
Suppressors, short-barreled firearms, and even machine guns are often overlooked when it comes to our Second Amendment rights because those rights have been eroded for so long. While the NFA was set up with a tax stamp that was designed to be prohibitively expensive, $200 in today’s world isn’t as bad as it once was.
And so, we should make it our mission to turn these once exotic and rare items into commonplace everyday tools and toys.
Dealers like Capitol Armory make that mission a lot easier.
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You (conveniently?) left out the part where Capitol Armory will take about a MONTH to ship your can after approval because they insist on contacting your CLEO themselves (instead of you notifying them yourself as per the usual NFA process).
O n top of that, the carrier will often just leave the package on your doorstep instead of getting a signature.
Do you folks make suppressors for air rifles? they don't require the BATFE and other junk.
"suppressors and short barrels are excellent and reasonably affordable"
Suppressors in the US are far more expensive (not reasonably affordable! )than they should be, probably 40% more. Granted, they are better than the usual European cheap models they are still overpriced.