We take a look at how Silencer Central manages to deliver suppressors purchased online straight to your doorstep.
Silencer Central has spent the last several years making substantial waves in the suppressor community. We hate to use corporate catchphrases like disrupting the market or changing the game to describe anything.
But we’re hard pressed to find a better way to capture the impact of their business model. Perhaps the most frustrating part of purchasing a suppressor (besides having to receive BATFE “permission” in the first place) is the purgatory known as “NFA jail” — wherein your purchased suppressor sits in the safe at your local FFL/SOT, unable to be used, during the always-longer-than-advertised wait time, while the BATFE processes your tax stamp application.
If you have friends behind the counter at said FFL and/or they have an attached range, you may be able to photograph, test-mount, or shoot your suppressor during aptly nicknamed canjugal visits. Rinse and repeat until such day that your paperwork clears and your suppressor is free to go — at which point you must drive back to your FFL and pick it up. In many cases, you’ll probably wind up paying the dealer a storage fee as well.
Bad news up front: Silencer Central cannot make the BATFE move any faster on processing times. But what they can do, which is plenty special in its own right, is have your suppressor shipped directly to your doorstep when the process is complete. Let me say that again:
Shipped. In the mail.
Directly to your house.
We were wary of the truth behind this claim until we went through the process ourselves to receive a Banish 30 Gold suppressor from them. Even after, sure enough, we opened our front door to see a box on our welcome mat with can, paperwork, and accessories all inside, the question lingered: How is that legal?
We sat down with Brandon Maddox, owner of Silencer Central, to go down the rabbit hole on how this unique method of transfer is possible and not felonious. Turns out the answer is right there in black and white.
Literally, actually, in Federal statues that permit a non-over-the-counter (NOTC) transfer of FFL or NFA items to their owner, only if no background check is required at time of transfer to receive the item.
There was even, at one point, a separate Form 4473 for NOTC transfers. Since that form is long out of print, the BATFE has granted Silencer Central a business variance to complete NOTC transfers with the standard 4473.
How do you receive a firearm or suppressor without a face-to-face transfer and NICS check? We know of two situations that currently meet this requirement. First, there are currently 16 states which do not require their CCW permit holders to undergo a NICS check at time-of-transfer for firearms purchases. Since most people go to a gun store in person to purchase a firearm, a face-to-face transfer usually occurs anyway, albeit without a NICS check.
The second is NFA transfers. Since the BATFE is certifying, through grant of the tax stamp, that a background check has already been completed for the purchase of that item, there’s no NICS check required at time of transfer.
This unique and highly specific dynamic is the legal mechanism that allows Silencer Central to do what they do. But there’s another layer to this onion. Interstate transfers of firearms or NFA items must begin and end with an FFL.
In order to remain in compliance with this requirement, Silencer Central maintains a stand-alone brick-and-mortar FFL/SOT in every state where suppressors are legal. This isn’t a single FFL with multiple satellite locations, but a network of individual FFLs owned by one business entity: Silencer Central.
When you begin the purchase and Form 4 application process with them, your paperwork is initiated and housed by the Silencer Central FFL in your state of residence. When that application is approved, your suppressor is transferred from their headquarters in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to their FFL in your state.
That checks the box for a proper interstate transfer. From there, the in-state FFL does not need to complete a NICS check, since BATFE already did one to process your Form 4 — meaning the dealer in your state boxes up your can, slaps on a shipping label, and away it goes direct to your doorstep.
With a selection of cans suitable for almost any rifle in your rack, we strongly recommend you check them out, and let them deliver some peace and quiet, and peace of mind, direct to your doorstep.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the 2025 suppressor special issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
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