While anti-gun groups are in full freak-out mode over the DOJ not immediately appealing a federal judge's decision that has rendered much of the National Firearms Act toothless, there's a certain contingent of gun owners who are also freaking out that the same decision is essentially meaningless... or at the very least doesn't go nearly far enough.
I'm not sure if the 2A doomer is entirely an online phenomenon, but it certainly isn't difficult to run across one or more if you spend even a little time on social media. Second Amendment advocate and author Larry Correia has seen more than a few, and he's fed up (warning for some salty language).
There's no creature more pathetic than a doomer. We get a win in court. They cry 'cause it doesn't instantly reverse a century of incremental gun control and give them a free kitten.
— Larry Correia (@monsterhunter45) August 13, 2026
I really wish more of these dorks had been involved in this stuff in the 90s. Stuff sucked. Bans…
I'm not going to out any of the doomers by name (or X account) here because I'm not trying to shame them, but Larry is right. I saw one post on X yesterday that was so over the top I was convinced it had to be sarcasm, but after perusing the guy's feed I realized he was dead serious when he complained that Jensen/Silencer Shop was a victory on paper only, just like Heller, McDonald, and Bruen.
I don't know how long this individual has been in the fight, but as someone who's been covering Second Amendment issues since the pre-Bruen days, I think it's absurd to believe that none of these court decisions have really made a difference.
In 2007, the year before Bruen was decided, there were still nine "may issue" states and two states where concealed carry was prohibited altogether, along with two states where permits were not needed to carry. Chicago and Washington, D.C. banned the sale and possession of handguns (at least for those not grandfathered in when their laws took effect). Today there are zero "may issue" states and 29 states where no permit to carry is required. Handgun bans are a thing of the past, though cities like Chicago are now trying to impose more limited bans on Glocks and other striker-fired pistols.
The Supreme Court has essentially invalidated the federal prohibition on gun ownership for marijuana users, has struck down the default carry ban on private property open to the public, and is poised to do the same with bans on so-called assault weapons.
Of course we're still engaged in significant fights to claw back our Second Amendment rights, and our opponents are doing everything they can to turn those rights into privileges. Like it or not, that is the nature of politics, and the push/pull between freedom and authoritarianism is going to continue long after you and I are no longer on this earth.
When it comes to the NFA ruling and injunction, yes, there is still a great deal of confusion about the scope of the judge's injunction in Jensen. Yes, we need guidance from DOJ and ATF about how they'll operate with the injunction in place, and yes, it would have been good for those agencies to roll out that guidance as soon as the injunction kicked in. Yes, many FFLs aren't going to risk selling you a suppressor or an SBR with just a 4473 until they have that guidance and assurances that they're not going to lose their license for doing so.
It's also been less than two days since the injunction took effect. Give things a little time to shake out. My guess is that there was debate at DOJ over whether or not to appeal or request an extension of the stay until basically the last minute, and there wasn't as much thought about how FFLs, distributors, manufacturers, customers, and the ATF would navigate the new legal landscape if the stay was lifted.
We've got some folks acting, though, like it's still Merrick Garland in charge of DOJ and Steve Dettelbach runningn things at ATF. Government is rarely as fast and efficient as we'd like it to be, but even if there are still anti-gun bureaucrats occupying some DOJ and ATF cubicles, there's no reason to believe that Attorney General Todd Blanche or ATF Director Robert Cekada are slow walking the release of any guidance because they prefer to keep stakeholders in the dark and guessing about what is and isn't legal right now.
And let's not forget that as much confusion as there is around the injunction and how it will be broadly implemented, it's has already had an impact for those plaintiffs who are clearly covered.
We are outside our local Greenville, SC @palmettoarmory where it is packed to the door with people transferring suppressors WITHOUT a tax stamp for the first time in over 90 years! pic.twitter.com/oWsIUKKtvr
— National Association for Gun Rights (@gunrights) August 13, 2026
I'm not denying that we're not yet where we want to be in terms of safeguarding and strengthening our Second Amendment rights. It's nonsense, though, to claim that we've just been spinning our wheels without making any progress over the past two decades. The folks who honestly believe that haven't really been paying attention or are willfully blind to see how far we've come in the legal, legislative, and cultural battles over our right to keep and bear arms... including the immediate aftermath of the Jensen/Silencer Shop decision.
