Trump Admin Lifts Ban on Sales of Silencers That Protects U.S. Troops From Ambushes

A gun lobbyist turned White House lawyer helped lift the ban on gun silencer sales to foreign buyers, enacted by the State Department to protect U.S. troops abroad.

Michael B. Williams [33 years old] 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....

Far from draining the swamp, Trump put the swamp on the White House payroll.

On Friday [7/10/20], the State Department lifted the ban, and a longtime industry goal was realized. 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.

His role in pushing to lift the ban, which has not been previously reported, follows a well-established pattern in the Trump administration, with the president handing over policymaking to allies of special interest groups with a stake in those policies. 

...  boon to another crucial political constituency: the gun lobby, which plays a leading role in Republican get-out-the-vote efforts and views eliminating silencer restrictions as an emerging issue.... by other powerful gun industry groups.

This is quite literally the definition of corruption...THE SWAMP.

Although the department’s rules had long permitted selling silencers to foreign governments, they did not allow sales to private companies or individuals, whose use of the devices is more difficult to monitor.  Silencers, or sound suppressors, attach to a firearm’s muzzle and reduce the noise made by gunfire by trapping gas released when a bullet is fired. Sales of suppressors in the United States, which are regulated by federal authorities, have climbed in recent years.

....when the ban was enacted in 2002, the policy was intended to prevent American equipment from being used against American service members, especially during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

...military, diplomatic and arms control circles defended the ban and expressed alarm about its lifting, which was announced in a little-noticed posting on a State Department website.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/13/us/trump-gun-silencer-exports.html