Trump Admin Lifts Ban On Selling Silencers Overseas, Ban Was Meant To Protect US Troops From Ambushes

The New York Times reports:

Michael B. Williams spent nearly two years helping to run a trade group focused on expanding sales of firearm silencers by American manufacturers. But try as he might, he could not achieve one of the industry’s main goals: overturning a ban on sales to private foreign buyers enacted by the State Department to protect American troops in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Then Mr. Williams joined the Trump administration.

As a White House lawyer, he pushed to overturn the prohibition, raising the issue with influential administration officials and creating pressure within the State Department, according to current and former government officials. On Friday, the State Department lifted the ban. The change paved the way for as much as $250 million a year in possible new overseas sales for companies that Mr. Williams had championed as general counsel of the American Suppressor Association.

The Trump admin has lifted a ban on sales of silencers to private overseas buyers that was intended to protect U.S. troops from ambushes.

The change was championed by a lawyer for the president who had worked for a firearms trade group. https://t.co/0SUALSDN2N

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 13, 2020