Kris note: This just in from The Associated Press:

WICHITA, Kan. — A jury convicted two men Monday of federal firearms violations in a case that repudiates a Kansas law that purports to prevent federal prosecution of anyone owning firearms made, sold and kept in the state.

Attorneys for Shane Cox and Jeremy Kettler argued that the fight between Kansas and the federal government over gun control laws is to blame for the confusion by two people who believed they were not doing anything illegal.

But jurors returned eight guilty verdicts against Cox, the owner of Tough Guys gun store in Chanute, under the National Firearms Act for allegedly illegally making and marketing unregistered firearms. They acquitted him of two other counts related to possession of a destructive device. Kettler was found guilty on one count of possession of an unregistered gun silencer.

“That is a Kansas law and my client is a Kansan and he thought that was the law. That is why he went to the trouble of stamping ‘Made in Kansas’ on it,” Steven Gradert, Cox’s attorney, said during closing arguments.

U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten told jurors the case would likely be appealed and that he anticipates that the Supreme Court might eventually review it.

Gradert said after the verdict that it’s a tragic situation in which the men got caught in a battle between the state and the federal government.

Likening it to a struggle between David and Goliath, defense attorney Ian Clark said in his closing argument that the conflicting gun laws are sending out different messages — and Kettler is “caught in the cross fire.”

Clark called the verdict a “terrible outcome. We were hoping it was different.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Hathaway put a short barreled rifle in front of the podium and painstakingly recounted all the evidence presented in his closing remarks. He declined comment after the verdict.

Federal law requires firearms and accessories such as silencers must bear the name of the manufacturer, the city or state where they are made and a serial number, Hathaway told jurors. These are things that need to be registered in case they’re used to commit crimes.

Kettler testified Monday that he bought the unregistered silencer after Cox showed him a copy of the state gun law signed by Gov. Sam Brownback.

The Kansas Second Amendment Protection Act, which passed in 2013, says firearms, accessories and ammunition manufactured and kept in Kansas are exempt from federal gun control laws. It made it a felony for the federal government to enforce them.