Oral arguments over Sig muzzle device postponed (VIDEO)

Sig Sauer, the gun maker that sued federal regulators over a ruling on one of its products, rescheduled oral arguments for later next month.

Sig filed a motion last week to request that arguments over the design and functionality of a Sig muzzle device be pushed to July 21, and a judge will issue an opinion later in the summer.

The company filed suit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in April 2014 after a year contesting the ATF’s original ruling that defines the device as a silencer instead of a muzzle brake.

The item in question is a 9.5-inch muzzle welded onto a 6-inch barrel. Although the overall length meets federal regulations, the muzzle is configured with features more akin to the internal component of a silencer than a muzzle brake, the ATF ruled.

Even though the device fails to suppress the sound of a gunshot without first securing a metal sleeve around it, federal law restricts the ownership of items in full and internal components. Many see the lawsuit as challenging the regulation.

The two-week bench trial will begin Aug. 4 in a New Hampshire federal court before Judge Paul J. Barbadoro, a President George H.W. Bush appointee.

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