Block Silencer Deregulation
What does it solve?
Silencers pose a significant danger in the wrong hands. They make it harder for bystanders or law enforcement to identify and react quickly to gunshots. Policymakers should block the gun lobby’s dangerous efforts to deregulate silencers.
In an active shooter situation, for example, hearing and recognizing a gunshot can be a matter of life and death.1Phil McCausland, “Virginia Beach Shooter Killed 12 Using Silencer and High–Capacity Magazine. Now, Lawmakers Might Look at Both,” NBC News, June 4, 2019, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/virginia-beach-shooter-killed-12-using-silencer-high-capacity-magazine-n1012771. But the gun lobby routinely chooses profits over safety by pushing radical policies that would make it easy for people with dangerous histories to obtain silencers. The gun lobby’s spin focuses on protecting shooters’ hearing, but silencers are not the most effective or the safest way to do so.
Myth & Fact
Myth
The gun lobby pushes silencer deregulation to protect hunters’ hearing.
Fact
Silencers are not a “hearing protection” issue. The gun lobby claims their efforts are intended to protect hunters’ hearing, but silencers are not the most effective or the safest way to do so. It’s not public health that would benefit from this policy, it’s the silencer market—one of the fastest-growing sectors within the firearm industry.
How it works
Deregulation would allow people with dangerous histories to buy silencers without background checks.
Congress enacted the National Firearms Act (NFA)1Pub. L. No. 73–474, 48 Stat. 1236 (1934). in 1934 to fight organized crime.2Kel Whelan, “Noiseless Nightmares: How Fear Stamped Out Silencers,” RECOIL, June 17, 2022, https://www.recoilweb.com/noiseless-nightmares-how-fear-stamped-out-silencers-175161.html. The law requires all buyers of silencers, machine guns, and other especially dangerous weapons to pass criminal background checks and comply with other common-sense safety provisions. The gun lobby has tried repeatedly to remove silencers from the NFA,3Congressional Research Service, “Gun Control: Silencers under the Hearing Protection Act (H.R. 3668),” IN10807, October 16, 2017, https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN10807; Congressional Research Service, “Guns, Excise Taxes, Wildlife Restoration, and the National Firearms Act,” R45123, March 5, 2018, https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R45123; Congressional Research Service, “Federal Firearms Laws: Overview and Selected Legal Issues for the 116th Congress,” R45629, March 25, 2019, https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R45629. meaning that for the first time in nearly a centurty, felons, domestic abusers, and people with dangerous mental illnesses would be able to buy silencers with no background check. They could do this simply by finding an unlicensed seller. Removing silencers from the NFA would undermine the law’s success in keeping our communities safe from silencer crime.
Silencers in the wrong hands create serious public safety risks. The loud and distinctive noise that a gun makes is one of its most important safety features: when people hear it, they realize they may need to run, hide, or protect others.
Silencers are not a “hearing protection” issue. The gun lobby claims their efforts are intended to protect hunters’ hearing, but silencers are not the most effective or the safest way to do so. In fact, silencers make hunting more dangerous, while ear protection products work better than silencers to protect hearing and safety—which is why the U.S. military relies on them, not silencers, to protect soldiers’ hearing.