If you don't remember what happened the last time silver was shorted, the Hunt brothers do.
The Hunt brother's weren't shorting. They were cornering, and did it on margin. Then the exchanges changed the margin requirements.
Unless these retail people buying up GameStop are doing it on margin, regulators can'd counter them by raising margin requirements.
It's been an open secret that JP Morgan has been suppressing the silver prices for years. I think they plead guilty to something and paid a pittance of their profits made off of little people to the fed gov, so they've really learned their lesson.
Herbert and Nelson Hunt made a huge mistake when they shorted silver after all of their cash was tied up. This mistake caused them to lose their shirts when that ploy back fired. ;)