On December 18, 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced that KBC Capital, a New-Hampshire-based firearm accessory manufacturer that operated as “Lethal Eye,” had been sentenced to three years probation and ordered to pay a $260,000 fine for illegally selling silencer parts in violation of the National Firearms Act (NFA). According to the announcement, the company deceptively marketed the core components of silencers as muzzle brakes — devices attached to gun barrels to reduce their recoil. But the parts could be combined with “other KBC products” and “generally available consumer products…to generate a firearm silencer.”
Since 1934, the NFA has imposed strict registration requirements on silencers, and the parts used to create them, because they muffle the sound of gunfire and make it difficult to determine where a shot originated. Civilians interested in purchasing or building a silencer must first submit an application to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) along with a copy of their fingerprints, a passport-style photo, and a $200 tax stamp before undergoing an enhanced background check.
The sentencing was announced days after an assassin used a ghost gun with a 3D-printed silencer to murder the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in Manhattan. A recent investigation also found that silencer ownership has skyrocketed in the U.S. after the gun industry’s trade association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, helped speed up the NFA approval process.
KBC’s silencer COMPONENTS
According to the sentencing memo, KBC Capital, owned by Xiaozhong “Mark” Zhang, advertised and sold gun parts through Lethal Eye’s website for about a decade. These parts included items labeled as “muzzle brakes” that were actually the internal components of silencers. Federal investigators explained that the items contained sound-dampening “baffles,” which slow propellant gases as they escape the muzzle. When covered with a metal sleeve and attached to a firearm, the components suppress the sound of a gunshot.
Investigators learned that KBC had been mislabeling silencer parts since at least 2017 — despite not having a Federal Firearms License (FFL) or paying the appropriate tax to manufacture silencers. That year, Zhang and the operations manager, who was not identified by name in court documents, met with a dealer-turned-informant at a gun show who expressed concern about the items because they “could be used to manufacture a silencer.”
Following that meeting, KBC added a disclaimer to the “muzzle brake” product page on the Lethal Eye website that said, “All products are designed and sold with 100% complete compliance and cooperations [sic] for and with BATFE [ATF] and NFA rules and regulations.” Yet, according to court documents, this claim was misleading, as the ATF had no record of correspondence with KBC about its products. The company also added language claiming the items “are not suppressors and or silencers in any way shape or form.” But investigators say the disclaimer was an attempt by the company to “insulate” itself from criminal liability.
Additionally, the company’s website hosted a video showing customers how to use Lethal Eye adapters to attach DIY silencers known as “solvent traps” to the barrels of pistols. While some retailers claim such items are used for cleaning firearms, the ATF states that they are makeshift silencers.
violating federal law
In all, KBC pleaded guilty to 26 counts of transferring a silencer in violation of the NFA. According to court documents, investigators documented 26 instances between April 2020 and August 2023 in which the company mailed “muzzle brakes” to undercover buyers in Massachusetts, a state that prohibits civilians from owning silencers. The ATF then determined that the items were in fact silencer components.
In August 2023, authorities executed a search warrant at KBC’s principal place of business and seized 327 silencers and several hundred silencer components.
The ATF reportedly contacted Lethal Eye customers who purchased the products around May 2024. In the notice, the ATF explained that some Lethal Eye products “have been classified as firearm silencers that were unlawfully manufactured” and added that unlawful possession of the items “could result in criminal prosecution.”
In the sentencing announcement, Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy said, “Silencers allow for the proliferation [of] criminal activity by reducing the sound of gunfire and affecting the ability to identify the location and source of a shot. By knowingly misbranding these devices, KBC flooded our streets with dangerous devices and impeded law enforcement.”