Shane Cox

WHAT THE RECORD SHOWS

The Justice Department list records the pardon on September 3, 2026 and gives his sentencing date as February 6, 2017, with a sentence of two years' probation. The Kansas Reflector reported that Cox was found guilty in 2016 on eight counts of illegally manufacturing and marketing firearms after relying on the Kansas Second Amendment Protection Act, a 2013 state law signed by Governor Sam Brownback that declared firearms, ammunition and accessories made, marketed and kept in Kansas could be governed by state law alone; Cox was confident enough in it to display the text of the statute in his Tough Guys store in Chanute, and he sold a homemade silencer to Jeremy Kettler, who was prosecuted alongside him.

The Kansas Reflector reported that the convictions were upheld in 2018 by the federal appeals court, which noted that federal law is superior to state law, and that the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeals in June 2020, leaving a presidential pardon as the remaining route. It also reported that state Senator Caryn Tyson petitioned President Trump for a pardon in December 2020 and that the Kansas Senate passed a resolution urging one. The Ledger ran all thirty names in this grant against FEC contribution records for the 2024 and 2026 cycles and found no contribution it could tie to a recipient.