NEW ORLEANS – Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and FPC Action Foundation (FPCAF) issued the following statement regarding United States v. George Peterson, a criminal matter presenting an FPC-backed challenge to the U.S. Government’s regulation of suppressors through unconstitutional registration and taxation requirements. Key case documents in Peterson can be viewed at firearmspolicy.org/peterson.
Background
In 1934, Congress enacted the National Firearms Act (“NFA”) (26 U.S.C. § 5801, et seq.) which, among other things, regulates firearm suppressors (“silencers”), imposing registration and tax payment requirements.
Under federal law, the terms “firearm silencer” and “firearm muffler” mean “any device for silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of a portable firearm, including any combination of parts, designed or redesigned, and intended for use in assembling or fabricating a firearm silencer or firearm muffler, and any part intended only for use in such assembly or fabrication.” (18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(25).)
In 2022, the United States Government criminally charged Mr. George Peterson, a resident of Louisiana, with possession of an unregistered firearm suppressor (i.e., “silencer”) in violation of 26 U.S.C. §§ 5841, 5861(d), and 5871.
Mr. Peterson has been and remains an FPC member.
As an affirmative defense to the charge, Mr. Peterson challenged the NFA’s constitutionality with respect to its regulation of suppressors as being unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.
In 2023, Mr. Peterson entered a conditional plea of guilty (pursuant to Rule 11(a)(2) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure), reserving the right to have the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit review the district court’s denial of his motions to dismiss the Indictment and to suppress evidence.
In February 2025, a 3-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of Mr. Peterson’s motion to dismiss in a horrifically flawed and dangerous decision.
Recognizing the danger the panel decision represents to Second Amendment-protected rights, FPC agreed to financially back world-class counsel for Mr. Peterson’s appeal. Read more
Once on the verge of disappearing from the state, moose were successfully reintroduced in the western Upper Peninsula from Canada in the mid-1980s.
