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For years, people have been purchasing solvent traps and following Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) procedures to legally convert the devices into suppressors by filling out an ATF Form 1, paying for a $200 tax stamp, and going through all the checks and balances. The ATF has recently started rejecting all applications to make a suppressor. In a letter written to federal firearms licensees (FFLs) on November 20, the Bureau claims that solvent traps never existed under federal law and most have always been unregistered silencers. Solvent traps are devices used to catch fluids from cleaning firearms....

From some time in 2019 to the present, the Department of Homeland Security, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, has been running an Operation Silent Night to intercept items coming from China that can be used to make suppressors/silencers. The operation has seized a lot of material, with relatively few arrests. The items seized are routinely marketed as solvent traps, fuel filters, or pill containers. As most of them do not have holes so that a bullet can travel through them, it is difficult to prosecute people for importing a “silencer” or even “silencer parts” when similar items...

After the recent shooting in Virginia Beach, when the shooter was found to have a suppressor on one of his two guns, Breitbart News’ AWR Hawkins is back to debunk the myth that gun suppressors are “silencers.”

The Supreme Court on Monday denied a request to take up a challenge to a federal law requiring the registration of some firearms including silencers. Challengers in the case believe the Second Amendment protects such firearm accessories. An appeals court had held that a silencer is not a "bearable" arm protected by the Constitution. The case comes as a silencer was used during the recent Virginia Beach massacre and President Donald Trump suggested he'd look into restrictions on gun silencers. The Trump administration had also urged the court not to take up the issue. The order was issued without comment...

President Trump said he is "seriously" considering pushing for a ban on suppressors for firearms in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Virginia Beach that left 12 people dead and six people injured. The shooter used two legally bought .45 caliber handguns, with a suppressor, in the attack. The shooter was shot and killed by police. "What is your view on silencers? Would you like to see those banned?" "Good Morning Britain's" Piers Morgan asked Trump. "I don't like them. Well, I'd like to think about it. I mean nobody's talked about silencers very much. I did talk about...

“Q The suspect in the Virginia Beach shooting used a silencer on his weapon. Do you believe that silencers should be restricted? THE PRESIDENT: I don’t like them at all.”

If you didn’t know, the late President Teddy Roosevelt really loved his guns for shooting, hunting and battle. He was obviously an avid user and collector. He was seriously into the Winchester lever-action rifles. Historians say his most prized was the Winchester Model 1894 chambered in .30-30, titled by Roosevelt as the “little .30”. When this rifle was first introduced, Roosevelt tried it out and took down an antelope at approximately 190 yards. He marveled at its usefulness and called the .30-30, “Aces.” Because he was such a gun nut, he had to have this one at his Long Island...

Clinton tweeted: The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get. Clinton's two-sentence remark backfired big time, though. The largest critique of them all came from a surprising place — PolitiFact. On Wednesday, PolitiFact dissected Clinton's claim. First, the publication said: Our research shows that a suppressor would not have made a difference in the Las Vegas case, because of the positioning of the weapons and because of the distance of the shooter from the crowd. Clinton's staff provided no evidence to suggest...

Two days after an attacker opened fire on concert goers in Las Vegas, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc) announced he was shelving legislation to deregulate suppressors. -snip- Ryan has now shelved the Hearing Protection Act, which was introduced into Congress on January 9; it is the legislation containing suppressor deregulation. The Act does not legalize suppressors–as they are already legal–rather, it removes the burdensome process for acquiring them and erases the federal tax that must be paid in order to receive permission to posses one. House Speaker Paul Ryan says NRA-backed bill to ease regulations on gun silencers is shelved...

Former FBI agent Manny Gomez claimed on MSNBC on Monday that hunters use suppressors so that deer cannot hear the gunshots. WATCH: (VIDEO-AT-LINK) Firearm owners actually use suppressors to prevent hearing loss, and even with a suppressor, a firearm would still be loud enough to spook a deer or other wild game. “Sportsmen, hunters would make an argument that they need that so that their target, whether it’s a deer, etc. don’t hear the shot,” Gomez claimed, “but numerous other sportsmen have shot from muskets–when the founding fathers started the Second Amendment–up until now successfully killed game animals without the...

SilencerCo's Maxim 50 suppressed muzzleloader caused a hoot on the internet. A gun with a silencer that doesn’t require ANY paperwork? One that can be MAILED to a buyer’s house, WITHOUT A BACKGROUND CHECK? Yup, pretty much. CNN reports that the Maxim 50 has the ATF’s blessing . . Silencers are subject to federal gun control laws that are more restrictive than for most guns. They are treated like machine guns, requiring a more intensive background check that takes months to process, with a $200 tax. But muzzleloaders are not subject to federal gun control laws because they use antiquated...

President Teddy Roosevelt was a big fan of silencers. The only silencers available to him were Maxim silencers. A silencer for his take-down model 94 Winchester 30-30, above, cost $9.70 in 1909.  He used the rifle frequently on his Sagamore Hill estate on Long Island, New York.  It was the classic use of a suppressed rifle. He used it to cull pests without disturbing his neighbors, the Duponts and the Tiffanys . From rarewinchesters.com: Whenever Winchester introduced a new model, Roosevelt was quick to put it through its paces. He acquired an 1894 similar to all his other rifles...

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, argues in a recent video about potential suppressor deregulation that it would be a danger to public safety. In a two-minute video short published by the Huffington Post this week, Murphy attacks the pending Hearing Protection Act as a piece of legislative charity to a flagging gun industry. “It will be a boon to the industry, but it will be terrible for the country,” says Murphy. “Silencers are used to commit crimes. They are used to conceal the fact that you are firing a weapon. There will be more crimes committed– more people...

Suppressors are currently under the jurisdiction of the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC). That means suppressors may not be sold to individuals overseas, only to approved governments. Suppressors are not extraordinary high technology. Sophisticated suppressors are not secrets. They can be produced by any concern with modern machinery. The current restrictions were put in place by a memorandum from the Department of State in 2002, a few months after the attack on 9/11.  While U.S. manufacturers are forbidden to sell to individuals overseas, foreign manufacturers are not.  A bill was introduced in the House of representatives in 2016...

They are the stuff of legend, wielded by hit men and by James Bond. For decades, buying a silencer for a firearm has been as difficult as buying a machine gun, requiring a background check that can take close to a year. Now, emboldened by the election of Donald Trump as president, the industry has renewed a push in Congress to ease those restrictions, arguing that it’ll help preserve the hearing of gun users. “We look at this as a Second Amendment issue. We look at it as a health issue,” said Erich Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of...

Kalamazoo, Michigan, Department of Public Safety Chief Jeffrey Hadley will appear with gun control proponent Gabby Giffords Monday to argue against suppressor ownership by “everyday Americans” and to oppose national reciprocity for concealed carry. Hadley is one of 20 law enforcement officers who have agreed to be part of Gabby Giffords’s “Law Enforcement Coalition for Common Sense.” The group will be announced Monday and will talk about “reasonable” gun control on Capitol Hill. Hadley claims national recognition of concealed carry permits will lead to a setting where “there [could] be more people carrying weapons that shouldn’t be.”

Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- On January 9th, 2017, the new Hearing Protection Act (HPA), H.R. 367, was reintroduced into the 115th Congress (2017-2018).  It was introduced by Representative Jeff Duncan (R-SC-3).  It started with 40 co-sponsors. The HPA, unlike many bills, is short and concise. It takes silencers out of the National Firearms act, with its draconian regulation and $200 excise tax, and places them in the same category as rifles and shotguns.Here is the text of the  Hearing Protection Act of 2017, H.R. 367:A BILLTo provide that silencers be treated the same as long guns.       Be it enacted by...

For those that have not the privilege to shoot a suppressed firearm. Some of our readers wanted to know if there is much differences in the actual sound of suppressed versus what you hear in the movies. Mythbusters steps up to the plate to test this out. In this video they lightly touch on-the-how a silencer work to decrease the sound. Eventually, getting into the nitty gritty of testing the sound of unsuppressed vs suppressed. The results are: For the suppressor owners, you already know its a huge differences. When suppressed its safe to say the sound was from "dangerous...

During the 2016 presidential election, President Donal Trump emphasized his support for the Second Amendment. I do not recall that he ever mentioned gun mufflers, silencers, or the Hearing Protection Act. But the penumbra of his attention to the Second Amendment is having implications beyond his direct gaze. The President Elect is setting the tone, and people are falling in line. The Hearing Protection Act, or HPA, was filed by Matt Salmon of Arizona. Matt has been a stand up guy for he Second Amendment. Matt is retiring this year, but the HPA will go forward in 2017.  The...

Silencer's has become a hot Commodity in the shooting and hunting community. It has gone so hot that a few people hve gone out of the way to attempt to melt a silencer from excessive rounds, then shooting a disintegrating round into a target from two feet away. But, have you ever seen one take so many rounds it melted? Watch this video from Off the Ranch as these guys shoot enormous amount of ammunition in an attempt to melt a silencer. See the suppressor glow like a light bulb ornament on a Christmas tree. The next part puts the...