On July 23, the Trump administration moved oversight of silencer exports from the State Department to the Commerce Department. The joint rules reduce the vetting required for export applications and make it easier for silencers, or sound suppressors, to cross borders.
July 23 Commerce rules
The change affects silencer manufacturers, retailers and owners. It gives exporters a less demanding review path than the one that had run through the State Department, and it also makes travel with silencers easier.
The Trump administration had already moved most firearm exports to the Commerce Department in January 2020, and it ended the ban on silencer exports to private foreign buyers in July 2020. The new rules extend that shift to silencers themselves.
1934 and later changes
Silencers were federally regulated in 1934 because of their use in violent incidents and the danger they pose. The gun industry has marketed them as hearing protection aids, while the Trump administration has also eliminated the federal tax required to own silencers and put forward proposals to streamline the buying process.
The policy comes after a string of export cases that drew scrutiny. A legally exported Sig Sauer P365 was used in a mass shooting at a preschool in Thailand in October 2022 that left 36 people dead, including 23 children. In August 2023, an American-made firearm was diverted from Peru to Ecuador and used to assassinate a presidential candidate.
Commerce Department oversight
A February 2025 Government Accountability Office report found that U.S. export licenses were aiding the flow of weapons to foreign criminal organizations, corrupt police and military forces, and authoritarian governments. The Commerce Department also identified firearms exports to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan that were diverted to Russia and may have been used in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
For exporters, the immediate change is procedural: the review now sits with the Commerce Department, and the application process is less restrictive than before. The remaining practical question is scale — how many silencer export applications will move through the new rules.
