A New Hampshire gun accessory maker pleaded guilty to illegally distributing components used to make silencers and agreed to pay a $260,000 fine. According to Thursday's announcement, the company KBC Capital admitted to 26 counts of violating the National Firearms Act.
"By knowingly flouting these regulatory requirements, KBC Capital allegedly flooded the market with these inherently dangerous devices," said Joshua Levy, the acting U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case, in a statement.
Congress passed the NFA to regulate silencers as well as machine guns, short-barreled long guns, and items deemed any other weapons, in 1934 in response to Prohibition Era violence.
"By making gunshots harder to hear, silencers impede law enforcement efforts to respond to shootings and diminish the effectiveness of gunshot detection technology," Levy said. "This results in slower response time by first responders, which can have a direct impact on saving the lives of people struck by gunfire."
Levy added: "This case demonstrates our office's efforts to attack the problem of illegal guns from all angles."
Marketing and selling silencer parts as something else
According to the plea agreement dated July 31, KBC, owned by Xiaozhong "Mark" Zhang and operating under the trade name "Lethal Eye," marketed items as muzzle brakes but they were in reality the internal component of a silencer. In all, investigators listed 26 instances in which the company mailed the components in Massachusetts between April 2020 and August 2023.
In court documents, investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) say the company advertised on its website several items listed as "muzzle breaks (sic)" along with language advising: "All products are designed and sold with 100% complete compliance and cooperations for and with BATFE and NFA rules and regulations." It also explicitly said the items "are not suppressors or silencers in any way shape or form."
However, investigators say the company lied. "This disclaimer was included in an attempt to insulate Lethal Eye from criminal liability and was not in fact accurate," they wrote in court documents. "A search of ATF records confirmed that KBC never corresponded with ATF regarding its products."
Federal investigators say they learned about Lethal Eye after Zhang and his operations manager, who was not named in court documents, met with a dealer-turned-informant at a gun show in 2017. The dealer expressed interest in selling Lethal Eye products but also expressed concern because of the item's likeness to silencer components. And that's when Zhang decided to post the disclaimer on the website.
A confidential source buys silencers in bulk
Beginning in May 2023, investigators bought a variety of items, which they suspected were silencer components. Once they received them, they had them tested with the ATF's Firearms Technology Branch, which confirmed that the items were silencer components.
A couple of months later, in July 2023, investigators had a confidential source conduct a bulk purchase of the pseudo muzzle brakes. A month later, the person received a package containing 15 silencer components. About 11 days later, investigators raided KBC's principal place of business and sized 327 silencers, five firearms, and hundreds of other silencer parts.
In the announcement, Levy's office shared statements from the heads of multiple law enforcement offices, including the ATF, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Homeland Security, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
ATF issues warning letters to owners
According to The Firearm Blog, the ATF issued a warning notice to owners of Lethal Eye muzzle brakes — the same items listed in the court documents (M074, M079, and M099), in May. In the letter, the ATF reveals how it classifies the items and the potential consequences for those who do not comply with the NFA.
James Reeves, an attorney and gun blogger who shared the letter, likened the situation to a dispute between gunmaker Sig Sauer and the ATF. In that case, Sig sued the ATF over its classification of a muzzle brake, which Sig introduced as an internal component to a silencer and later described as a muzzle brake, but ultimately lost. Reeves referred to the case as a "precedent" for the ATF's actions against Lethal Eye.
According to the plea agreement, the company KBC pleaded guilty to the 26 felony counts — as opposed to Zhang or other company officials. As for the fine, the company agreed to pay it in full by March 31, 2026.
