Florida Attorney General Tells Police Unregistered SBRs Are Not a Crime Under Section 790.221

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier told the state’s police agencies and prosecutors on November 6, 2026 that possessing a short-barreled rifle or short-barreled shotgun without National Firearms Act (NFA) registration, the federal registry of such guns, is not a crime under Florida law. The five-page memorandum, posted on his office’s X account, says his office “will not defend a conviction under section 790.221 on appeal on the sole basis that the owner of the SBR or SBS lacked NFA approval, registration, or a federal tax stamp.”

Section 790.221 of the Florida Statutes makes it a second-degree felony to own or possess a short-barreled rifle, a short-barreled shotgun or a machine gun that works or can readily be made to work. Its third subsection excepts firearms “lawfully owned and possessed under provisions of federal law.” The memo reads that exception to mean state law “does not independently criminalize possession of firearms if those firearms may lawfully be owned and possessed under federal law,” and cites the Florida Supreme Court’s 1972 decision in Rinzler v. Carson for the same reading. Treating the section as a standalone state ban, it adds, “would implicate Floridians’ Second Amendment rights and would likely fail Bruen’s test.”

The federal change behind the memo came in three steps. Congress cut the NFA’s making and transfer taxes on SBRs, SBSs and silencers to zero in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and kept the $200 tax on machine guns and destructive devices. On August 5, 2026, Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas held in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF that the registration and prior-approval provisions could no longer be sustained under the taxing power once the tax was zero, and he permanently enjoined their enforcement against the plaintiffs, their members and their customers. The Solicitor General told House Speaker Mike Johnson in a September 24 letter that the Justice Department would not appeal. ATF announced on October 9 that it would stop enforcing the prior-approval and registration requirements nationwide for SBRs, SBSs and silencers, a policy the memo says “applies uniformly, without regard to organizational membership, participation in the federal litigation, or coverage by the injunction.”

The guidance takes effect at once and holds “so long as no taxes are imposed on SBRs and SBSs.” It sets out five directives for present possession:

1. Mere possession of an SBR or SBS “does not supply reasonable suspicion or probable cause for a search or seizure.”
2. Finding one during an otherwise lawful encounter “does not, by itself, justify a plain-view evidentiary seizure.”
3. The attorney general’s office will not defend a conviction under section 790.221 on appeal when the only basis is a missing NFA approval, registration or tax stamp.
4. Other Gun Control Act requirements still apply, including the dealer-transfer rule in 18 U.S.C. 922(b)(4) that ATF has temporarily stopped enforcing, the prohibited-person rules in 922(g), and the location rules for school zones and federal facilities.
5. Local governments are barred by section 790.33, Florida’s firearms preemption statute, from imposing any additional restriction on SBR or SBS possession.

Several federal rules survive. Businesses remain subject to the special occupational taxes. ATF’s Form 20 authorization is still required for interstate transport of an SBR or SBS when 18 U.S.C. 922(a)(4) applies, “including when the firearm is not NFA-registered,” and Floridians must follow the laws of other states when traveling. ATF still accepts voluntary NFA applications, but the memo says that “does not guarantee later registration of an already unregistered firearm or grandfathering if federal policy changes.” Possession also does not violate section 790.161, the state’s destructive-device statute, because that offense requires possession that is both willful and unlawful.

The memo covers SBRs and SBSs only. Machine guns stay under section 790.221 and under the NFA’s taxes, which Congress left in place. The memo’s reasoning turns on federal law continuing to permit possession, and nothing in it changes the NFA itself, which remains on the books.

A narrower letter preceded it. On October 11, Brian Kramer, the State Attorney for the Eighth Judicial Circuit, told chiefs and sheriffs in Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Gilchrist, Levy and Union counties in a six-county letter that “Florida law does not independently require an ATF Form 1, Form 4, tax stamp, or registration in the federal registry” for lawful possession. Uthmeier’s memorandum extends that reading to all of Florida and tells every local agency the same thing.

That guidance lasts as long as the federal tax stays at zero. Its next test comes if Congress restores the tax or a higher court disturbs the August 2026 injunction, which the Justice Department chose not to appeal.