“A knee-jerk ban, similar to switchblades.”
I think the suppressor ban is a bit different. Switchblades, like “Assault Weapons” had a big media push to demonize them, along with political opportunists making a name for themselves based on nonsensical fear.
As far as I can tell, that never happened before the ban on suppressors (silencers) that was passed in 1934.
I think suppressors were just thrown into the grab bag of everything they thought they could grab federal control over. What they really wanted was handguns, but that was a bridge too far.
A suppressor ban never made any sense, but few enough people had them and were using them to mount significant opposition. The ban was steamrollered in under the Roosevelt regime’s general attack on the Constitution and the rule of law.
Here is an article about their use in New Zealand.
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2015/08/new-zealand-silencers-cheap-and.html
Thanks for the link. I agree, a suppressor ban made no sense at all. Calling them ‘machine guns’ was even more wierd. Ahh, those statists...