Gun silencers are hard to buy. Donald Trump Jr. and silencer makers want to change that.

[demmiblue]

Source: Washington Post

The federal government has strictly limited the sale of firearm silencers for as long as James Bond and big-screen gangsters have used them to discreetly shoot enemies between the eyes.

Now the gun industry, which for decades has complained about the restrictions, is pursuing new legislation to make silencers easier to buy, and a key backer is Donald Trump Jr., an avid hunter and the oldest son of the president-elect, who campaigned as a friend of the gun industry.

The legislation stalled in Congress last year. But with Republicans in charge of the House and Senate and the elder Trump moving into the White House, gun rights advocates are excited about its prospects this year.

They hope to position the bill the same way this time — not as a Second Amendment issue, but as a public-health effort to safeguard the eardrums of the nation’s 55?million gun owners. They even named it the Hearing Protection Act. It would end treating silencers as the same category as machine guns and grenades, thus eliminating a $200 tax and a nine-month approval process.

<snip>

In the video, after he’s shown shooting several guns with silencers, Trump Jr. says they can help with getting “little kids into the game.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/gun-silencers-are-hard-to-buy-donald-trump-jr-and-silencer-makers-want-to-change-that/2017/01/07/0764ab4c-d2d2-11e6-9cb0-54ab630851e8_story.html?utm_term=.2b9af2428a92

[Docreed2003]

1. Completely asinine...

Here's a suggestion for these morons...ear protection! Never go to the range without it! But that wouldn't fill up the coffers of a gun industry, would it?

[global1]

2. What Is Wrong With These People?....nt

[oasis]

3. I wonder what top cops have to say about it.

[otohara]

16. Many Cop Unions Endorsed Trump

my city of Denver DPD Union did and after the election the cops took blankets away from homeless in freezing cold weather in spite of orders from the mayor not to do so.

Our mayor is black so they blew him off - Trump effect.

[oasis]

19. Silencers will limit the number of witnesses in shootings. Cops need to

have some input in the debate.

[GeorgeGist]

4. Imagine how many targets a mass shooter could bag.

[EL34x4]

8. I don't see legalized silencers having any impact on mass shootings.

[dubyadiprecession]

14. Loud gun noise sends people into an immediate panic, as they will scatter and run.

If it's silent more people will stay grouped together unaware they are easier targets.

[hack89]

22. Except silencers aren't silent

Real world is not like Hollywood- a suppressed weapon is still very loud, especially at close range.

[ileus]

5. I'm not counting on this passing, so I'll buy mine the old fashioned way.

Last edited Sun Jan 8, 2017, 01:02 PM - Edit history (1)

Now the only question is 22lr or 9mm...

I've shot many, but never really wanted one until I seen a SP-01 with a muffler.

[Kolesar]

10. The point is that the gun industry has another issue to gob up money from the paranoid RWers

Lots of mailings will go out to everybody on the NRA and NAGR mailing lists with verbiage saying that America is about to be taken down into an unprecedented level of tyranny and only sending money can stop that.

Meanwhile, the executives at the gun lobby live better than any French king.

[NickB79]

6. Silencers are pretty low on the list of gun related worries

One, they don't actually silence a gunshot like they show in movies and make the shooter impossible to find. They simply take away the crack of the shot. You can find plenty of comparative videos online.

Two, they're legal (and often required) in most European nations for hunting, with relatively few regulations on their sale.

[EL34x4]

7. I don't see anything wrong with this.

The prohibition on silencers never really made much sense, particularly since they don't even really "silence" anything. They just suppress the volume, as the video makes clear.

[HAB911]

9. At least airports will be quieter......n/t

[Chuuku Davis]

11. I shoot "silencers", actually they are sound suppressors

On most of my firearms
My long term hearing is important to me
I shoot competition about 36-40 weekends a year
And suppressors are not nearly as quiet as what movies would have you believe

In many European countries you can buy suppressors at the local store

Flamesuit on

[Paladin]

13. Do those competitions of yours prohibit the use of earmuffs?

Just wondering......

[Chuuku Davis]

15. Try and shoot a rfle with ear muffs on

I do use plugs along with the suppressor

[Paladin]

20. Oh, I did.

I shot rifles while wearing earmuffs, several hundred times over the years.

But I'm sure I didn't look nearly as cool as you and your suppressor.

[Paladin]

12. Next up: easy access to fully-automatic firearms.

The silencer issue is indicative of just how good pro-gun militants have it in this country. They have easy access to most firearms, ammunition and a wide variety of accessories. Now they want and will apparently get unchallenged access to silencers. Next on their list: adding machine guns to their collections, without the pesky federal regulations which have kept prices for such weapons high, and which have kept violence involving such legally owned firearms at virtually zero for decades. Keep the foregoing in mind, the next time some Gun Enthusiast starts caterwauling about how persecuted gun owners are in this country.

[hack89]

21. One can only hope. Nt

[aikoaiko]

33. You mean the firearm class least likely to involved in violence even before 1986.

[Paladin]

35. Restrictions on full-automatics are proof positive that gun control works.

That's what I meant, since you were nice enough to ask.

[aikoaiko]

36. Thank you for supporting access to machine guns via the NFA.

[X_Digger]

17. I wonder why suppressors are available over the counter in the UK? And required in some countries?

Blame Hollywood as to why suppressors are an NFA item.

No dear, they don't turn a loud bang into a little 'phhut' sound. You still have a supersonic crack that no suppressor can eliminate. So the sound goes from being extremely ear damaging to merely loud. Hearing protection is still required.

It's like a muffler on a car.

[Waldorf_]

18. Its not the pesky regulations that keep an automatic weapon cost high. You fill out the same

paperwork to get one of those as you do a suppressor. Its the finite amount of legal firearms in the Country. No new ones have been available to the public since the ATF closed the books in 1986. So you must find a person willing to sell theirs, which means paying top dollar.

[moondust]

23. If they had ever served in the military

they would know a thing or two about the use of earplugs and noise-canceling headphones.

The sickos are just trying to help out their organized crime buddies and gun manufacturers.

[hack89]

24. What is the harm in suppressors?

guns that have are still very loud.

[moondust]

25. Suppressors

provide organized crime and anybody else that has one a better chance of getting away with murder. Unsilenced gunshots are typically loud enough to attract the attention and alarm of bystanders in the area who know immediately that gunshots mean trouble and they need to: 1) take cover; and 2) call the cops. A gun with a silencer may still be loud enough to alert bystanders in the immediate vicinity but perhaps not someone beyond the walls of a hotel room or in a neighboring house or people a half block up the street. More stealth = more getting away with murder and therefore more murder.

[hack89]

27. Suppressed guns are as loud as jack hammers

Reducing a gunshot by 30 or so db still leaves them in the 140db range.

[moondust]

29. Just use earplugs

or noise-canceling headphones. Absolutely no need whatsoever to endanger the public any more than it is already endangered by gun lunatics.

[hack89]

30. They are only good for 30 db

In combination with a suppressor you get a gun shot down to 100db - much better for protecting one's hearing, don't you think?

[moondust]

31. No.

The decibels will not be constant, will naturally vary with the environment: louder in an empty cavern and softer in well-insulated living quarters. Add some extra "padding" to a silencer like a pillow around the barrel and it may be next to inaudible.

The hearing argument is just a lame excuse for more gun stealth and gun lobby profits which will inevitably lead to more murder and mayhem--already at unconscionable levels and unnecessarily so as statistically proven by multiple countries that know better than to cultivate a deadly gun culture.

[hack89]

32. So a gun as loud as a jack hammer is a threat to public safety?

That is that is your position?

The only way to truly silence a gun is to use subsonic ammo - that is what the military does. Hollywood is not reality.

[NobodyHere]

28. I'm sure organized crime will be interested in obeying the law

[HeartachesNhangovers]

26. I really don't see any harm in this. I guess if you're

willing to commit murder, you probably are willing to skip all the legal hoops currently required to buy one of these things legally.

[aikoaiko]

34. Do I understand that suppressors will still be registered? Just the tax is eliminated, yes?

Summary: H.R.3799 — 114th Congress (2015-2016)All Bill Information (Except Text)

There is one summary for H.R.3799. Bill summaries are authored by CRS.
Introduced in House (10/22/2015)

Hearing Protection Act of 2015

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) eliminate the $200 transfer tax on firearm silencers, and (2) treat any person who acquires or possesses a firearm silencer as meeting any registration or licensing requirements of the National Firearms Act with respect to such silencer. Any person who pays a tax on a silencer after October 22, 2015 may receive a refund of such tax.

The bill amends the federal criminal code to preempt state or local laws that tax or regulate firearm silencers.

[fescuerescue]

37. Silencers need to be banned like they are in the rest of the world.

Imagine the Ft Lauderdale shooting if this guy had killed 20 or 50 people before the crowd starting noticing.

All these things will do is enable public shootings to kill 10 times more than before.

[MineralMan]

38. Oh, cool. So, the abusive ex-husband can shoot his ex-wife

in her home without the neighbors hearing. That'll be just great!