“the “Hearing Protection Act” would simply remove “firearms silencer” from the list of prohibited weapons.”
A silencer is not a weapon, except in the sense you could beat someone with one, like a baseball bat.
“A silencer is not a weapon, ...”
The Feds disagree. By federal law, a silencer is a firearm, whether it’s attached to a gun or not. And any firearm that isn’t also a weapon isn’t worth what you paid for it.
Even when removed from the weapon, a fully-automatic trigger mechanism (or as used in the AR-15, a Drop-In Auto Sear [DIAS] or Lightning Link) also are “firearms” (at least according to the BATF). That was the only way they could figure to bring them to heel under the BATF without expanding the name to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Silencers, and Full Auto Trigger Thingies.
Tennessee is one of eight states to have passed it’s own version of the Firearms Freedom Act (tip of the hat to the state of Montana for getting the ball rolling). The FFA states that the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution trumps (dontcha love that word?) any federal firearms law, so any firearm made in the state, sold to a state resident, and maintained within the state is exempt from all federal firearms laws.
Some of the FFA states (Tennessee among them) also have passed FFA supporting legislation which prohibits any state actor from assisting any federal agency which intends enforcing a federal law that contravenes the terms of their state’s FFA.
I always have thought that the purpose of the FFA was a strategic one, to give those states with an FFA the standing to join a SCOTUS suit to try to get all federal gun laws declared subordinate to state gun laws as stipulated in the FFAs, if not outright ruled unconstitutional. But because of the consequences to the future of the movement if the case should reach SCOTUS but fail, they necessarily were biding their time until the composition of SCOTUS (and preferably POTUS, too) was more 2A-friendly. It remains to be seen whether Tennessee thinks they can get away with this because Trump .45 will rein in an overreaching BATF, or whether they think it’s time to start bringing the 10th Amendment issue to a head.
AFAIK Barrett Arms is is the only “brand-name” manufacturer who builds silencers in Tennessee as of today, and their offerings are limited, but if this bill passes, mom’n’pop suppressor makers are sure to be popping up like toadstools after a spring rain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana_Firearms_Freedom_Act
http://firearmsfreedomact.com/
http://www.quarterbore.com/nfa/dias.html
http://www.quarterbore.com/nfa/lightninglink.html