Case Explained: United States of America Plaintiff— v. Brennan James Comeaux Defendant—

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-06-18 The Fifth Circuit affirmed the defendant’s conviction for possessing an unregistered silencer in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d). The court held that while silencers constitute “Arms” protected by the plain text of the Second Amendment, the National Firearms Act’s (NFA) shall-issue registration regime is presumptively lawful. Under the two-step *Bruen* analysis applied in this circuit, a challenger to the NFA must demonstrate that the system has been “put toward abusive ends” through exorbitant fees or lengthy wait times to overcome this presumption. Because the defendant failed to allege that the NFA’s application process was abusive, he did not show that the statute burdened his Second Amendment rights, rendering his facial and as-applied challenges unsuccessful. Consequently, the judgment of conviction is affirmed, leaving the defendant subject to the district court’s sentence of 24 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Do It For The Case Law is a news reporting service. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal advice.