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A new report from firearms website AmmoLand Shooting Sports News revealed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) sent an open letter to all federal firearm licensees (also commonly known as gun shops) that "solvent traps never existed under federal law and most have always been unregistered silencers." 

However, in early 2022, the ATF unofficially considered solvent traps as suppressors (read: here), which allowed law-abiding gun owners who bought these devices and manufactured them into homemade suppressors to file a National Firearms Act "Form 1" with the ATF and pay $200 tax stamp to own them legally. 

Now, according to AmmoLand's investigative reporter John Crump, the ATF's open letter sent to FFLs on Monday indicates these devices that attach to the end of a barrel, used to catch fluids from cleaning firearms, "never existed under federal law and most have always been unregistered silencers." He said the ATF has begun "rejecting all applications to make a suppressor." 

"These traps can be purchased from various retailers, notably Chinese websites like Aliexpress and Wish. Many Americans purchased these items to legally convert solvent traps into suppressors, but the ATF claims the term does not exist in its regulations," Crump said. 

Here's more from Crump's reporting:

And then there's this… The ATF appears to be broadening its definition of "suppressors," possibly labeling end caps as suppressors. Crump goes into detail about this troubling development:

Many law-abiding Americans purchased these devices to legally convert solvent traps into suppressors by filing Form 1. But now the ATF claims these devices were always unregistered silencers. 

Crump also explains in the video below how the ATF is broadening its definition of suppressor to include end caps. 

Yet another move by Biden's rogue ATF to turn law-abiding Americans into felons overnight.