The GOP majorities in Congress and a PEOTUS* who’d boast of firing a gun down NYC’s Fifth Avenue, will be pushing the boundaries of profitability in the firearms accessories market. And firearms regulations at the state and federal level will be affected.
The gun lobby is supporting new legislation to deregulate restrictions on owning noise suppressors for firearms.
While this is a boon to the industry and its lobbyists, it raises the potential for greater casualties and reverse the decline in gun violence fatalities. More interestingly, it fulfills so many fantasies driven by media narratives of special forces operators and spies using “silencers”.
Suppressors have a high profit margin for those interested manufacturers, most of whom would be outpaced at some moment by lower priced imported versions, making any domestic industry benefit limited in the long run.
Normalizing the use of suppressors, while having some secondary benefit in terms of “protecting hearing”, would make the conventions of paramilitary police use and criminal availability much broader.
Another example of the contradiction of such availability would be the use of audio detection systems to pinpoint gunfire in populated areas.
This would also be similar to the consequences of military-style semi-automatic (modern sporting) rifle regulation. There has been an expansion of accessories and manufacturers even after the rise and fall of regulations depending on which political parties have been in power and which state is making laws.
Note that “quiet guns” really aren’t the point if you’re a good shot and a good hunter. And muzzle brakes are not the same as suppressors, in terms of recoil effectiveness and hearing impacts.
Ear covers and plugs have improved, but ultimately it’s more about the pleasure of firearms operations, and for the manufacturers, more consumption of firearms and ammunition, especially sub-sonic.
More is better, especially when the industry can sell more stuff. More cynicism about mocking public health arguments really doesn’t improve the conversation about public safety. Also there’s the potential for disruption of public order and eroding democracy when hate groups or sick individuals get hold of accessories that can increase casualties.
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.
“It’s about safety,” Trump Jr. explained in a September video interview with the founder of SilencerCo, a Utah silencer manufacturer. “It’s a health issue, frankly.”
Even with the restrictions, silencers have become one of the fastest-growing segments of the gun industry, which pushed accessories as gun sales level off. In 2010, there were 285,087 registered silencers. Last year: 902,085.
Rep. Matt Salmon, an Arizona Republican who regularly shoots with silencers, introduced the Hearing Protection Act in the House in 2015. A companion bill in the Senate was championed by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho).
Though the bill never made it to committee hearings, it generated tremendous interest, becoming the third most-viewed piece of legislation on Congress’s website last year. (Top was the Democrat-led Assault Weapons Ban of 2015.)…
Easing the restrictions could have a profound public-health impact, champions of the legislation say.
Hunters often shoot without hearing protection so they can hear prey moving. Many recreational shooters don’t like wearing ear covers, which can be heavy and hot and in gun ranges lead to many conversations ending with, “I can’t hear you.”
Silencers are also marketed as must-have attachments for high-powered rifles — a tactical necessity that reduces recoil, thus improving aim.
“Quiet guns are easier to shoot,” the National Rifle Association says in its American Rifleman magazine. “Try it.”