“Made in Texas” Silencers – Are They Legal?

This became a question back in 2019 when the Texas Legislature and Governor Abbott passed a law declaring that silencers made wholly in Texas that do not travel outside of Texas (thereby not entering “interstate commerce”) are exempt from federal marking, registration and tax requirements. That law also prohibits any Texas state or local jurisdiction from enforcing federal law regarding those silencers.
That made big news. Unfortunately, people do not read more that what they want to hear and failed to read the rest of the bill. In order for the Texas law to be valid, someone has to notify the Texas Attorney General’s Office that they intend to manufacture a silencer under this law. The Attorney General then shall (the law’s wording) go to federal court to get a ruling from a judge that the Texas law is constitutional. Why in the world would that be a thing?

Here’s why. Back in 2014 Kansas passed a similar state law without that requirement to seek a federal judge’s buy-in. An army-navy store owner without a federal firearms license started making silencers and selling them over the counter. By all accounts they were actually pretty well made and one of the purchasers starting posting on social media about how great it was. End result was federal convictions for both the buyer and the seller – regardless of the state law. Both the buyer and the seller actually sued the State of Kansas for misleading them into believing what they did was legal The Texas law requiring the AG to seek a federal court to declare the law constitutional is an attempt to avoid that same issue.
It is highly doubtful that a federal court would allow a state law to override federal law. Article VI Paragraph 2 of the US Constitution is known as the Supremacy Clause which establishes that federal law generally takes precedence over state law and even state constitutions. And in fact, the Texas Attorney General has yet to go before a federal judge on this issue. It is also worth noting that the US Supreme Court declined to hear appeals on that earlier Kansas case.

What brought this up again now was a customer who brought his rifle to the shop to have his silencer mounted. That silencer was in a plain black cardboard tube with white lettering that said “Made in Texas.” The silencer itself was absolutely without markings of any kind. We had to refuse to have anything to do with that silencer because we rely on our Federal Firearms License for our livelihoods and can’t risk the outcome of being the test case for this state law in the federal court system.
Don’t fall for the gun show seller with the Made in Texas silencers, or “solvent traps.” That Texas law has no meaning in the federal justice system. You are literally risking your freedom, your finances and your second amendment rights to own any firearm with a federal conviction.