On February 6, the Fifth Circuit decided United States v. Peterson, holding that noise suppressors (aka silencers or mufflers) are not protected by the Second Amendment. Written by Chief Judge Jennifer Elrod, the court held that suppressors are not "Arms" within the Second Amendment's purview. Under Bruen, if an item is an "arm" within the text of "the right to keep and bear arms," the burden shifts to the government to demonstrate that the restriction is consistent with the historical tradition of arms regulation at the founding.
Under Heller, "the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding." To that, the Peterson court added that "to constitute an 'arm,' the object in question must be a weapon." In other words, for a modern-day instrument to be an arm under the Second Amendment's text, the object itself, standing alone, must be an arm.
Peterson argued that suppressors are "an integral part of a firearm," that "a bullet must pass through an attached [suppressor] to arrive at its intended target," and thus they meet Heller's definition as a weapon that casts and strikes. The court rejected this argument, stating: "A suppressor, by itself, is not a weapon. Without being attached to a firearm, it would not be of much use for self-defense." Of course, neither is a barrel, a trigger, a stock, or a safety, but do they have no Second Amendment protection?
