Multiple Kansas law enforcement organizations came out against the bill. They want stiff penalties for crimes using weapons like short-barreled shotguns and guns with suppressors.
Owning firearm suppressors or sawed-off shotguns is legal federally, but not in Kansas. Some state lawmakers are trying to change that, but their main challenge to passing legislation is law enforcement.
The charge of criminal use of weapons includes both silencers and short-barreled shotguns in Kansas law. A new bill would legalize those gun modifications.
Gun owners currently need to register those modifications with the federal government and until recently had to pay a tax.
Republican Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach told lawmakers Monday that the difference in federal and state law is a “trap.”
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“I’m sure many people in this room have fired a gun with a suppressor on it in the state of Kansas,” Kobach said at a committee meeting, “not knowing that was a violation of Kansas criminal law.”
The proposed change in state law comes as firearm suppressor sales are growing, and the removal of federal registration costs might accelerate that.
According to data from the American Suppressor Association, the number of registered silencers has increased from almost 800,000 in 2015 to nearly six million at the beginning of 2026.
The biggest challenge to the legislation is coming from Kansas law enforcement organizations.
The organizations say they are not against the removal of the silencers ban for law-abiding gun owners, but they still want there to be deterrents in place for people using the gun modifications when committing a crime.
“What we’re trying to do is address those folks that might use the silencer in a nefarious way,” Kansas Sheriff’s Association Legislative Chair and Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter said. “Not the legal gun owners or suppression owners.”
The Kansas Association of Chiefs of Police Legislative Chair Chief Darrell Atteberry did not oppose the silencer portion of the bill, but did not like legalizing short-barreled shotguns.
“That’s a scary thing,” the Bel-Aire police chief said. “They’re devastating.”
The federal law changed with the Trump Administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill. A longstanding $200 tax for people registering silencers and short shotguns under the 1934 National Firearms Act, or NFA, was removed with the legislation.
The removal of the tax has led to a bevy of lawsuits at the federal level attempting to overturn the entire NFA.
The reasoning behind the suits is the fact that despite the removal of the $200 tax on silencers, owners still must register their gun modifications federally.
If the lawsuits are successful and the legislation makes its way through the Statehouse, then gun modifications would be legal in Kansas with no federal registration required.
Zach Boblitt reports on the Kansas Statehouse and government for Kansas Public Radio and the Kansas News Service. You can email him at zach.boblitt@ku.edu.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio.
Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
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