My son killed his first buck with the same rifle I used to kill my first deer when I was about his age. It was a great day. This is the picture we took to memorialize it.
That true story inspired me to write a law review article I called, “The Firearm That Isn’t: Silencers and the ‘Loud Bang Theory.'” The opening scene of the article recounts that day. My ears still don’t feel right.
American University Washington College of Law’s Criminal Law Practitioner has now published my article in the Fall 2025 edition. I am grateful to Editor-in-Chief Davis Hayman, Articles Editor Nicole Hurst, and all the folks at the journal that worked on getting my article ready for publication.
You can read the article here. It provides the most complete legal history of the regulation of silencers that I’m aware of, and recounts a comprehensive summary of contemporary news reports of crimes involving silencers. It also contrasts silencers with rifle scopes in an attempt to understand why silencers have experienced a vastly different cultural and legal experience. I hope you enjoy it.