In an amended complaint filed Thursday, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said suppressors are already regulated under the National Firearms Act. Therefore, the district government is going beyond the 1934 federal law by categorically banning silencers.“Categorically banning an arm is different in kind and not merely in degree from regulating it,” the complaint reads. “The District may enact a wide variety of firearm regulations, but the Second Amendment ‘takes certain policy choices’—including a categorical ban of an arm in common use—’off the table.'”
Dhillon made the case that the ban doesn’t hold up because suppressors are commonly used by people who follow the law. She also disputed the “myth” that criminals often use suppressors.
“According to the American Suppressor Association, as [of] April 2026, there are approximately six million registered suppressors in the United States,” the complaint states. “Yet, according to acting former ATF Deputy Director Ronald B. Turk, they are rarely used in criminal shootings and should not be viewed as a threat to public safety. Indeed, in 2017, the ATF reported that it had recommended prosecutions in only 44 suppressor-related cases on average per year.”
