Court Rejects Challenge To Regulation Of Gun Silencers
BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 6 months ago
Via reader Fred, The Charlotte Observer.
The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to federal regulation of gun silencers Monday, just days after a gunman used one in a shooting rampage that killed 12 people in Virginia.
The justices did not comment in turning away appeals from two Kansas men who were convicted of violating federal law regulating silencers. The men argued that the constitutional right “to keep and bear arms” includes silencers.
The court’s action in the silencer cases was among dozens of orders in pending appeals, including decisions to add an international child custody dispute and four other cases to next term’s docket. The justices also will hear cases dealing with a death row inmate in Arizona, racial discrimination claims against Comcast by an African American owned media company, environmental cleanup at a Superfund site in Montana and a dispute between Intel Corp. and a retired Intel engineer.
In the silencer cases, Kansas and seven other states joined in a court filing urging justices to hear the appeals. The states said the court should affirm that the Second Amendment protects “silencers and other firearms accessories.” The other states are: Arkansas, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.
President Donald Trump’s administration asked the court to stay out of the case and leave the convictions in place.
Shane Cox, owner of a military surplus store, was convicted of making and transferring an unregistered silencer, and customer Jeremy Kettler was convicted of possessing one, all in violation of the 85-year-old National Firearms Act. Both men were sentenced to probation.
Previously we had observed that “we had the bump stock ban courtesy of a single, solitary, action by the federal executive remaking federal law on a whim. Nice precedent, Mr. Trump. We’ll see that used for very nefarious purposes in the future, no doubt. Then we had support for red flag laws (or so-called extreme risk protection orders). Then we had the selection of a gun controller to head the ATF, and finally today we get loathing of suppressors.”
But this action puts the meat on the bones. All he had to do was phone his AG up and tell him to say to the court that our Solicitor General won’t even show up to defend this case, and we’d prefer that you hear it. In fact, the U.S. can actually take the side of the defendant. It’s happened before.
Oh, that’s right. The AG Trump selected isn’t so friendly to guns, is he? Well, there’s another gun control feather in Trump’s beanie.
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