Robert Reid Taylor, 46, of Sulphur, La., stood before federal magistrates Wednesday and admitted to possessing an unregistered firearm silencer — a move that now puts him on the hook for up to 10 years behind bars.
The guilty plea, entered before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen Kay, stems from a September 7, 2017 incident when authorities discovered the illegal device in Taylor’s possession. The silencer had no manufacturer’s markings or serial number, rendering it untraceable and entirely off the books.
Worse still, the device was never registered in the National Firearms and Transfer Record — a federal requirement for all such suppressors. That omission alone triggers a felony charge under U.S. weapons law, regardless of whether the silencer was attached to a firearm at the time.
Taylor now faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing has been set for a later date, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Dominic Rossetti handling the prosecution.
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and brought under the umbrella of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a federal initiative resurrected in October 2017 by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to combat rising violent crime through coordinated law enforcement action.
Project Safe Neighborhoods has long targeted illegal gun possession and trafficking, focusing federal resources on repeat offenders and unregistered weapons. Taylor’s case underscores the government’s aggressive stance on untraceable firearm accessories — silent, unseen, but now carrying a very loud consequence.
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Key Facts
- State: Louisiana
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Weapons
- Source: Official Source ↗
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