Veteran Sentenced for Unlawful Possession of Silencers He Argued Were Solvent Traps

Hatchet Speed. (Alexandria Sheriff's Office via AP)

A Navy veteran was sentenced to three years in prison for unlawful possession of unregistered silencers that he argued were legal purchases of “solvent traps,” an accessory that can be fashioned into a suppressor.

U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff, an appointee of President Joe Biden, handed down the sentence on April 13 after Hatchet Speed was convicted on three counts by a jury in January.

After joining the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, Speed started stockpiling at least 12 firearms and attempted to acquire silencers, according to court filings. When faced with approval delays, to avoid waiting, he purchased three solvent traps marketed as an accessory used for cleaning a gun barrel but which can also be modified by an end user to serve as a silencer.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a statement that the accessories weren’t registered to him as silencers as required by the National Firearms Act (NFA).

According to court filings, Speed didn’t modify the solvent traps by drilling a hole, which is needed to turn them into silencers. He argued that they didn’t need to be registered until modified. But prosecutors claimed he was trying use a loophole to bypass the NFA registration requirement to obtain silencers faster.

Prosecutors argued that Speed’s purchases were “exceptionally serious” given his belief in a potential civil war after the certification of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021. They cited Speed’s comments in private communications and to an FBI agent, which they characterized as anti-semitic and indicative of a plan to use the devices as silencers for future “political violence.”

Speed was a member of the Proud Boys and believed the 2020 presidential election was stolen. His lawyers asked for the judge not to be biased against him due to his views, but the judge said his views showed he was a danger to the public. He faces additional charges in a different court for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach and plans to appeal his sentence.

Solvent Traps

Gun Owners of America (GOA), a national gun rights organization, says the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is going after solvent traps because they can theoretically be modified and used to make a silencer.

Solvent traps are a tool used to catch excess fluids during gun cleaning. They attach to firearm barrels in a similar way as firearm silencers. Silencers are regulated under the NFA because of the “close association of the use of silencers with criminal acts.”

The ATF acknowledges that solvent traps have legitimate uses on firearms, but in an internal “Technical Bulletin” (pdf) dated April 20, 2017, the bureau states that a key factor differentiating the devices from a silencer is their intended use.

Certain common car parts can be used to fashion a silencer, such as solvent traps, oil/fuel filters, flashlights, and freeze plugs.

“Such items are unregulated until a possessor assembles, accumulates, or otherwise demonstrates these articles are to be used for making a firearm silencer,” the technical bulletin states (emphasis theirs). The document goes on to state that once an individual acquires these items with the intent to use them to fabricate a silencer, then it comes within the purview of the Gun Control Act (GCA) or the NFA.

According to a court filing, prosecutors argued that comments Speed made to an undercover FBI agent in early 2022 show he knew the solvent traps “were designed as silencers and that he possessed them for that reason.”

Solvent traps are a contentious issue in the gun rights debate due to contradictory advice from the ATF on what constitutes a firearm. In 2006 and 2017, the ATF did not classify certain parts as firearms or silencers, according to information obtained by GOA via a freedom of information request. However, in December 2022, the ATF published a letter defining “partially complete” frames of certain pistols as firearms. GOA contends that this causes confusion and real-world implications.

Secret Bulletin

The ATF’s technical bulletin on solvent traps was intended for internal reference and not released to the public. It was uncovered by GOA via a freedom of information request.

GOA and U.S. lawmakers have raised concerns with ATF and the U.S. Attorney General about why the rulemaking was kept secret and not shared with American gun owners.

The gun rights organization argued in a separate video that the ATF’s bulletins were deliberately kept secret from the public.

“These secret ATF bulletins go into specifics about when the ATF thinks an item crosses the line from having a legitimate purpose to being an unregistered silencer,” the video presenter stated. “Of course, the ATF has never seen fit to make these technical bulletins public and that’s important. Instead, they’ve chosen to deliberately keep the public in the dark about their secret standards.”

In March 2022, a group of 20 U.S. senators, led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland and the ATF to express their “grave concern” after American gun owners began receiving threatening letters.

“This secret guidance was brought to our attention by those who have received recent threatening letters where the ATF makes blanket threats based on the recipient allegedly purchasing and possessing various firearms accessories, none of which are illegal based on any statute or regulation,” the March 2022 letter states.

The lawmakers noted that they were disturbed to learn the ATF was attempting to conceal its interpretation of the law while enforcing it.