9th Circuit: Suppressors Not Protected by 2A

The Ninth Circuit weaponized the worst possible defendant to strip suppressor protections from the Second Amendment — and every gun owner in America should be furious.

In *United States v. DeBorba*, the court ruled that suppressors are not "arms" protected by the Second Amendment. The case involved an illegal alien caught with an unregistered suppressor while under domestic violence protective orders and facing false citizenship charges. Anti-2A judges love bad-facts defendants. Stack enough crimes on one man, and you can write an opinion that sounds measured while gutting rights that belong to law-abiding gun owners who jumped through every NFA hoop, paid the $200 tax stamp, and waited eight months for approval.

The court's logic is constitutionally bankrupt. The Second Amendment protects "arms" — and suppressors are mechanical components that attach to firearms, sold commercially, and owned by roughly half a million registered Americans. They reduce hearing damage. They do not turn rifles into assassination tools. That is Hollywood fiction, and the Ninth Circuit just encoded that fiction into binding precedent for nine states.

The ruling directly threatens every registered suppressor owner from Alaska to Arizona. It signals that NFA items — already buried under federal registration, background checks, and years-long wait times — can be legislated or adjudicated out of existence with zero constitutional recourse inside the Ninth Circuit's jurisdiction.

This decision also opens a circuit split. If another appellate court rules the opposite way — and it should — this case goes to the Supreme Court. *Bruen* (2022) established a text-and-history test that the Ninth Circuit continues to route around with creative legal gymnastics. SCOTUS needs to correct this.

What to do right now: Contact your U.S. Senators and demand they cosponsor the **Hearing Protection Act**, which removes suppressors from NFA regulation entirely. Support legal organizations — GOA, SAF, FPC — building the cases to reverse this ruling. And if you live in the Ninth Circuit, your suppressor rights just became a legal gray zone.

The Ninth Circuit turned a criminal alien's rap sheet into a crowbar against your constitutional rights. Don't let them get away with it.