Supreme Court rejects Arkansas filing in gun case

Washington, DC – A multi-state petition in a Second Amendment case was rebuffed by the Supreme Court today. The court's decision to reject the appeal of two Kansans leaves against their convictions leaves in place federal regulation of gun silencers.

The justices did not comment in turning away the appeals.

The two men, Shane Cox and Jeremy Kettler, were convicted in 2014 following Kettler’s purchase of a silencer from Cox’s military surplus store in Chanute, Kansas.

Both were prosecuted under a federal law called the National Firearms Act, which requires registration of certain firearms, with silencers included in a list of covered items along with grenades, machine guns and bombs.

Cox was convicted of possessing an unregistered silencer as well as an unregistered short-barreled rifle and transferring unregistered silencers. Kettler was convicted of possessing an unregistered silencer.

The men argued that their constitutional rights under the second amendment “to keep and bear arms” includes silencers.

Last year the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver upheld both men’s convictions, prompting them to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The attorneys general of Kansas, Arkansas, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, South Carolina, Texas and Utah urged in a joint filing that the justices should support the appeal, thereby affirming that the Second Amendment protects “silencers and other firearms accessories.”

However the Trump administration had urged the court to ignore the appeal and uphold the convictions. The court’s decision to reject the appeal leaves those original convictions in place.