ATF cuts NFA processing times as application volume triples

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) responded to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted by NSSF. The response showed that the volume-weighted average processing time across its four highest-volume forms has fallen from 73 days in fiscal year 2021 to approximately 18 days today. ATF Form 4 processing has fallen from roughly 150 days to about 18 days over the same period.

The ATF has achieved this while application volume has nearly tripled.

More applications. Dramatically less waiting. That is measurable progress for lawful firearm owners and the firearm industry – and the result NSSF has spent years pushing the federal government to deliver.

A decade-plus push for faster processing

Long NFA processing times were not merely inconvenient. For firearm owners purchasing suppressors and other NFA-regulated products, government paperwork could delay a lawful transfer for months.

NSSF began pressing the ATF to introduce electronic NFA-form processing in 2013. It also worked with allies in Congress to ensure the ATF’s NFA Division had sufficient resources to handle growing application volumes.

Those efforts produced results.

By April 2024, NSSF reported that average electronic Form 4 processing times had fallen to 53 days, down from previous waits of between 90 and 190 days. Paper Form 4 applications averaged 245 days, down from nearly 280 days.

Now, even those improved numbers look outdated.

The ATF says its modernisation, process improvements and increased operational efficiency have allowed the agency to handle substantially greater application volume while continuing to reduce processing times.

That is exactly what firearm owners and the industry should expect from government. If Washington, DC, insists on requiring Americans to navigate a federal regulatory process before taking possession of lawful products, administering that process efficiently should be the minimum expectation.

Demand grows, but the backlog does not

The most revealing part of the ATF’s announcement is not simply that processing is faster. It is that the improvement has come while Americans are submitting far more applications.

The ATF says volume across its four highest-volume forms has nearly tripled over the past five years.

The bureau’s latest posted monthly data illustrate the scale. The ATF received 231,502 NFA applications in May 2026, including 121,117 Form 4 suppressor applications. It finalised 233,843 NFA applications that month, including 123,143 suppressor Form 4 applications.

The median processing time for an individual electronic Form 4 was just six days.

Through 1 July 2026, the ATF reported receiving more than 1.62 million NFA forms and finalising nearly 1.52 million. Form 4 applications alone accounted for 949,422 submissions and 894,938 finalised applications.

Suppressors are helping drive that extraordinary demand.

NSSF has reported that the suppressor market experienced 265% growth in registrations from 2020 to 2024, while the number of suppressors in circulation doubled during that period. The ATF now reports more than 6.65 million registered suppressors in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.

Americans are not losing interest in these products. They are buying them in enormous numbers. In fact, Americans are submitting approximately 20,000 applications a day.

The ATF is proving that soaring demand does not have to mean soaring wait times.

Better processing, same unnecessary burden

The improvement is especially welcome following the reduction of the $200 NFA tax to zero on suppressors, short-barreled rifles and short-barreled shotguns. Congress reduced the tax last year, effective 1 January 2026, removing a financial burden that had been imposed on lawful purchasers for generations.

However, the registration and duplicative background-check requirements remain.

That is why NSSF continues to support the Hearing Protection Act and the Stop Harassing Owners of Rifles Today (SHORT) Act, legislation that would remove those products from unnecessary NFA requirements.

Faster processing does not erase the underlying policy problem. It does, however, make a meaningful practical difference.

For consumers, approvals measured in days rather than months mean less time waiting to take possession of a lawful purchase. For firearm retailers, manufacturers and distributors, faster processing means inventory moves more efficiently, customers receive products sooner and government paperwork creates less friction throughout the lawful marketplace.

According to ATF director Robert Cekada, there is more to come.

“We are not finished,” Director Cekada posted to X in July. “We will keep improving and modernizing, earning the trust of the American people while staying focused on our core mission to reduce violent crime.”

The ATF deserves credit for delivering this dramatic improvement, particularly while confronting historic demand. NSSF and its congressional allies also deserve credit for spending years pressing for the electronic systems, resources and efficiencies that helped make it possible.

But these numbers make a larger point. For years, months-long NFA waits were treated almost as an unavoidable feature of the system. They were not. Current form-processing data show that there are nearly three times as many applications, with only a fraction of the wait.

That is measurable progress for firearm owners and the industry – and proof that government-imposed delays should not be accepted simply because government has grown accustomed to imposing them.

By Jenn Jacques, NSSF. More at nssf.org

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