Legal eagle serves up industry predictions under Trump, part 1 of 2
Gun patent attorney Bennet Langlotz, based in Dallas, recently gave Guns.com an interview on his predictions for the industry under a Trump presidency.
We wanted to know about new technologies, but Langlotz quickly zeroed in on potential changes to NFA regulations. A growing number of companies are making suppressors for a relatively narrow market, but he foresees a sea change.
Guns.com: Let’s start with smart guns. The current administration has made a lot of comments and some new developments have come into the market. Where do you see it going from here?
Langlotz: I don’t have much interesting to say about smart guns besides that there is so much political resistance. Let the FBI mandate them for their agents for 5 years before considering any other mandate as anything but an infringement of the Right to keep and bear arms.
Guns.com: What about the incorporation of 3-D printed components or entire guns?
Langlotz: I see 3D printed parts all the time in the prototype phase when we are discussing patent protection for upcoming new products. 3D just means high cost for low volume. If it’s going to be in quantity it will normally pay to mold or use other processes. Then again, there are the “impossible” shapes that can be done by printer that can’t be molded or machined.
Guns.com: What other product predictions will you make for a Trump presidency?
Langlotz: Take a look at my recent post on the Hearing Protection Act.
Here are the summarized predictions from that post:
- Barrel threading and replacement barrels will be big business.
- Anyone who invents a way to practically attach a suppressor to a conventional pistol without an extended threaded barrel will make a fortune.
- It might be worth the trouble for someone to suppress a revolver.
- Inventing a way to integrally suppress a conventional semi-auto pistol will be a revolution. (This has been done at least once, but maybe he means one a person can reasonably carry).
- Flash hider and muzzle brake development will be unleashed because designers will no longer fear the regulatory consequences of quieting the report while reducing flash or recoil.
- A new market may open up for very compact noise reducers that make indoor shooting with hearing protection more comfortable.
- Welcome back wipes, window screen, and steel wool. What made economic sense without the millstone of regulation might make sense again. Wipes that wear out may no longer be regulated parts, but would simply be replacement parts.
- Some suppressors will be designed so flimsily that they’ll have a high failure rate, but it will be an acceptable failure mode if your $20 Tupperware can fails [sic] by shooting a few light parts downrange, like a shotshell wad.
Langlotz also issued a call to YouTubers to serve up a multi-caliber demo for the uneducated masses. Thanks to the movies, most people don’t realize that audible report still happens with most silencer-enhanced shooting.
As timing would have it, this interview began the day President-elect Trumps’s Second Amendment Coalition roster was announced. He’s bullish on the group’s prospects for spurring a new generation of gun innovations. Part Two of this interview will focus on why Langlotz sees so much promise coming from this new team.
The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the position of Guns.com.
The post Legal eagle serves up industry predictions under Trump, part 1 of 2 appeared first on Guns.com.
Source: http://www.guns.com/2016/11/29/legal-eagle-serves-up-industry-predictions-under-trump-part-1-of-2/
