US v. Speed: Speed, a former software engineer and January 6 participant, began “panic buying” more than $40,000 worth of firearms and “related products.” Some of those were “solvent traps,” which can be used to catch solvents used during the firearm cleaning process. They can also be modified to function as silencers. Solvent traps typically cost under $20 and are made of plastic – the ones Speed cost up to $330 and were made of titanium (and weren’t apparently very well suited to work as actual solvent traps). In 2022, an FBI agent met with Speed, who admitted he was “prepping for possible civil unrest” and explained how to convert the traps to silencers. The FBI seized the traps, although they found none of the implements necessary to convert them into silencers. Speed was convicted of possession of three unregistered silencers and sentenced to 36 months in prison.
On appeal, the Fourth Circuit affirmed Speed’s convictions. Speed’s primary argument was that the solvent traps did not meet the legal definition of a silencer (which expressed itself in several issues related to his trial). The court disagreed, holding that the statutory definition of silencer did not require the device to be operable. In addition, there was sufficient evidence to support a jury’s conclusion that Speed knew how the traps could be modified to operate as silencers. Speed’s other overarching argument was that his conviction violated the Second Amendment. The court disagreed, holding that even if silencers were covered by the Second Amendment, “regulating arms through shall-issue licensing regimes is presumptively constitutional in the Fourth Circuit.”
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