With Republicans assuming control of both the House and Senate in just

With Republicans assuming control of both the House and Senate in just
a couple of months, Second Amendment advocates are hopeful that things
like national right-to-carry reciprocity and the removal of suppressors
from the National Firearms Act will soon be enacted into law. The
Hearing Protection Act currently has 29 co-sponsors in the Senate and
69 in the House, so supporters still have some work to do in educating
congresscritters on the importance of the bill.

Even with suppressors still regulated by the NFA, though, sales have
been quietly soaring in recent months. Now, Everytown for Gun Safety's
"Smoking Gun" website is [1]sounding the alarm to anti-gun activists
about the record-setting increase in suppressor ownership.

In October, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the gun
industry’s trade association, [2]reported that Americans owned 4.9
million silencers as of July 2024 according to data provided by the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).^[3]1
Compared to [4]previous reporting, this updated total reflects an
alarming surge in silencer sales: In the first six months of 2024
alone, Americans purchased and registered a staggering 1.4 million
silencers.

The data shows that between May 2021 and July 2024, a mere
three-year span, Americans accumulated nearly as many silencers as
were registered in the previous 87 years — since the National
Firearms Act (NFA) first mandated their registration in 1934.

The surge is only "alarming" to those convinced that suppressors are
inherently dangerous items that turn the sound of a gunshot into an
undetectable whisper. The reality is that even suppressed firearms make
plenty of noise. The Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation [5]says, for
instance, that "even the most effective suppressors on the smallest
calibers reduce the peak sound level of a gunshot to around 110-120
decibels"; about as loud as a car horn or a power saw.

Suppressors are common overseas, especially in many European countries,
but they've been tightly regulated here in the U.S. since the creation
of the National Firearms Act in 1934. Still, as Everytown complains,
recent regulatory changes have made suppressors more accessible to gun
owners, and their popularity is growing by leaps and bounds.

In the past, silencer customers waited several months to have their
NFA applications processed. But in December 2021, the ATF rolled out
a new online “eForms” system — after successful lobbying by the
[6]NSSF — that dramatically sped up approvals. Well-known silencer
retailers like the [7]Silencer Shop have boasted that they’ve seen
same-day approvals for customers.

As discussed [8]here, silencer retailers have also streamlined the
silencer-buying process. In addition to offering financing options
for silencers, companies will prepare NFA applications for
customers, collect their fingerprints through mailed kits or kiosks
set up at gun shops, and even ship silencers directly to customers’
doors.

Everytown suggests that's a big problem, but they don't have any
evidence to back up their claims. The gun control group says that there
153 cases between 1995-2005 where "evidence suggests a silencer was
used for a criminal purpose," but they fail to mention that includes
unlawful possession of a silencer where [9]no other crime was
committed.

That gives an average of about 15 reported cases each year, and
assuming this represents close to half of all prosecutions, one can
assume 30-40 total cases per year. This is out of 75-80,000 federal
criminal prosecutions each year. Overall numbers certainly suggest
that silencers are a very minor law enforcement problem.

... If we include sale of weapons in the victimless category (along
with possession of illegal weapons, drug trafficking, and mere
non-violent possession of weapons by a felon), then more than 80
percent of federal silencer charges are for non-violent, victimless
crimes. If we consider all those convicted of RICO, CCE, extortion,
robbery and conspiracy as “professional” criminals, these still
represent less than 20 percent of defendants prosecuted.

The anti-gunners at Everytown are terrified about the prospect of
silencers being taken off the NFA, but there's simply no legitimate
reason to be concerned. Suppressors are used in a handful of crimes
every year, but they're helping to save the hearing of millions of
Americans. The rise in suppressor ownership is a very good thing, and
deregulating their sale and possession is long overdue.

References

1. https://smokinggun.org/nssf-americans-bought-1-4-million-silencers-in-first-six-months-of-2024/
2. https://www.nssf.org/articles/firearm-suppressor-registrations-outpace-historic-figures/
3. https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2024/11/16/javascript:void(0)
4. https://smokinggun.org/new-data-shows-troubling-surge-in-silencer-sales/
5. https://congressionalsportsmen.org/policy/firearm-suppressors/
6. https://smokinggun.org/report/the-gun-industrys-power-broker/
7. https://www.silencershop.com/atf-wait-times
8. https://smokinggun.org/new-data-shows-troubling-surge-in-silencer-sales/
9. https://www.westerncriminology.org/documents/WCR/v08n2/clark.pdf