Are suppressors, short-barreled rifles and other NFA items legal in California?

The National Firearms Act (NFA) is a 1934 federal law. ATF describes it as covering machine guns, silencers, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, "any other weapons," and, since 1968, destructive devices (ATF overview). California regulates the same kinds of items under its own Penal Code sections, with its own definitions and penalties.

Any person, firm or corporation who possesses a silencer in California is guilty of a felony (Penal Code 33410). The definition is broad. It covers any device "designed, used, or intended for use in silencing, diminishing, or muffling the report of a firearm," and it includes combinations of parts and any part intended only for assembling a silencer (Penal Code 17210).

The exceptions in Penal Code 33415 are limited to listed law enforcement agencies and the military, their on-duty officers, and federally registered dealers and manufacturers supplying those agencies. The section lists no permit for private individuals.

No person may manufacture, import, keep for sale, offer for sale, give, lend or possess a short-barreled rifle or short-barreled shotgun except as the code expressly allows (Penal Code 33210). Both definitions also reach a weapon made from a rifle or shotgun that ends up under the length limits, and certain parts in the possession of one person (Penal Code 17170, 17180). A separate section sets the punishment: imprisonment in a county jail for up to one year, or imprisonment under Penal Code 1170(h) (Penal Code 33215).

The code's exceptions:

• Police, sheriffs, other listed agencies and the military, and their trained on-duty officers (Penal Code 33220).
• Manufacture, possession, transportation or sale that DOJ has authorized and that does not violate federal law (Penal Code 33225). The permit itself is issued under a different section, Penal Code 33300. Good cause for that permit "shall be limited to" two things: use solely as a prop for a film, television, video production or entertainment event, and federally licensed dealers or manufacturers supplying the listed agencies (Penal Code 33300).
• Antique firearms (Penal Code 17700), and firearms that are curios or relics under federal regulations and are held by a person federal law permits to possess them (Penal Code 17705).

Possessing or knowingly transporting a machine gun is a crime "except as authorized by this chapter" (Penal Code 32625). DOJ may issue a permit "upon a satisfactory showing that good cause exists," never to anyone under 18, and a possession permit may be issued only to an individual (Penal Code 32650).

The state definition includes frames or receivers, conversion parts, and, in the version amended by AB 1127 that took effect January 1, 2026, "any machinegun-convertible pistol equipped with a pistol converter" (Penal Code 16880). California separately prohibits multiburst trigger activators, a category that names bump stocks, burst triggers and trigger cranks (Penal Code 32900, 16930).

California has no single "any other weapon" category. Its list of "generally prohibited weapons" names items such as cane guns, wallet guns, zip guns, undetectable firearms, firearms not immediately recognizable as firearms, and short-barreled rifles and shotguns (Penal Code 16590). One exemption says those provisions do not apply to a federal "any other weapon" in the possession of a person permitted to possess it under the federal Gun Control Act, and that exemption does not apply to a pen gun (Penal Code 17710).

Destructive devices are handled separately. Possession is a crime (Penal Code 18710) unless DOJ has issued a permit (Penal Code 18900).

Two things. The first is taken from the text of the federal statute, and the second from ATF's published guidance:

1. The tax. Public Law 119-21, signed July 4, 2025, set the federal transfer and making tax at $0 for every NFA firearm other than a machine gun or destructive device. The change applies to calendar quarters beginning more than 90 days after enactment, and the first such quarter began January 1, 2026 (section 70436).
2. Enforcement. ATF reports that a federal district court in Texas, in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF (N.D. Tex. No. 6:25-cv-056, decided August 5, 2026), enjoined the NFA's making, registration and transfer tax provisions for the $0-tax items, and that the injunction applies only to the plaintiffs and others named in the order. ATF then announced that, effective October 9, 2026, it will not enforce those requirements against any person for short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, silencers and "any other weapons," with listed exceptions such as the rules on obliterated serial numbers and illegally imported firearms (ATF guidance). This article relies on ATF's description of the ruling; the court opinion itself was not reviewed.

ATF adds limits. It says machine guns and destructive devices "remain taxable items and subject to all NFA provisions." The covered items are still "firearms" under the Gun Control Act. ATF also warns that enforcement could resume if the injunction is overturned or the policy is rescinded.

The California sections above are state crimes. None of them depends on the federal tax or on federal registration enforcement, and each was still in the Penal Code when checked for this article. ATF's guidance says the injunction and its enforcement policy do "not affect these state laws," and that a "minority of states prohibit the possession of most or all NFA items under state law" (ATF guidance). It also notes that federal law, 18 U.S.C. 922(b)(2), still bars licensed dealers from selling or delivering these items in violation of state or local law.