In layman’s terms: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit withdrew its anti-Second Amendment opinion from February that Suppressors are not “arms” protected by the Constitution. The original ruling did not bode well for suppressors.
On June 17, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit withdrew a previous opinion stating that suppressors are not “arms” protected by the Second Amendment, with some speculating this is possibly an admission that the controversial decision was incorrect.
The one-page memorandum states no reasoning other than the order itself:
Pursuant to the court’s directive, the opinion in this case has been withdrawn.
Although no one knows exactly what the cause is, this action coincides with recent suppressor deregulation efforts and has been largely embraced as good news by gun rights groups, including Firearms Policy Coalition, which backed this case.
Other gun rights groups, like the Second Amendment Foundation, also weighed in with a comment:
This is a major development that indicates the Court may be reconsidering that incorrect ruling, potentially in response to a Letter Brief filed in the case by the United States, asserting that Suppressors are indeed “arms” protected by the Second Amendment.
We previously reported on this decision by a three-judge panel in a case known as United States v. Peterson. The decision was notably awful in that by concluding that suppressors are not arms, the court evaded the Bruen test requiring a comprehensive review of the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation against the regulation at issue.
Mark Smith, host of Four Boxes Diner YouTube channel, summarized the possible significance of this development in his breakdown: “if you ban suppressors you have banned an entire category of firearms,” setting a precedent the court may not have wished to set in its initial decision.
See Mark Smith’s article on the topic of suppressors here.
On May 22, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which incorporates Section 2 of the Hearing Protection Act, which fully removes suppressors from the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934. This eliminates the $200 tax stamp, registration requirements, and other NFA regulations for suppressors, treating them like standard firearms subject to a NICS background check at the point of sale.
That portion of the bill is now under consideration in the Senate’s finance committee. We will continue to cover this story.
