US Supreme Court Rebuffs Expansion of Legal Protections for Gun Silencers
Lawrence Hurley
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away a bid to widen legal protections for gun silencers in a case involving two Kansas men convicted for failing to register the devices as required by federal law, as the justices again sidestepped a chance to rule on the scope of the right to bear arms.
The justices declined to hear appeals by the two men, Shane Cox and Jeremy Kettler, and left in place their convictions in cases brought by federal prosecutors. The men had asked the court to decide whether silencers - muzzle attachments that suppress the sound of a gunshot - are covered by the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment, which protects the right to keep and bear arms.
The court's action came in the aftermath of a May 31 mass shooting in the Virginia coastal city of Virginia Beach in which a gunman who killed 12 people used weapons including a handgun equipped with a silencer.
President Donald Trump, a Republican with a close relationship to the National Rifle Association pro-gun lobby, said in an interview aired on June 5 that he does not like silencers and would be open to considering the devices. His administration this year imposed a ban on "bump stock" attachments that enable semi-automatic weapons to be fired rapidly, with the Supreme Court in March permitting........