The
Tactical Edge – September
Silencers
and Suppressors
Summer was really hot this
year, but now its fall and the weather is turning nice again. It’s cooling down
and the elk are now in rut. Everyone is heading up to the mountains early in
the evening to watch the bull elk rounding up their herds of cow elk. It’s
quite a site around here. On a good night, you have no trouble seeing hundreds
of elk in one area or another. As the winter comes on, you will see more and
more elk in the town area especially around Estes Park. On a good day there’s
more elk than tourists.
This month I want to talk about
the topic of silencers and suppressors on firearms. Why do people own
suppressors? There are three main reasons: reduction of noise pollution,
hearing protection, and safety training. As for the first, hunting frequently
takes place in state or national forests or other locations near where people
live. During hunting season, nearby residents may be annoyed by the frequent
sound of gunfire. Likewise, some people have built houses near established
target ranges; when people at the range use suppressors, the ambient noise is
reduced, although certainly not eliminated.
There is no difference between
a silencer and a suppressor or for that matter, a car muffler. They all
function the same way, which is to suppress and muffle sound. Now if you’re a
big movie buff, you know a silencer on a gun will enable it to shoot without
somebody in the next room even knowing it. That’s an awesome feat, but it’s
only possible on a Hollywood movie set. Silencers do not make firearms silent.
The average silencer on a typical handgun will suppress or reduce the noise
level between 24 and 30 dB. Typical ammunition for a handgun such as a 9 mm has
a muzzle blast in the range of 140 to 150 dB. Suppressing that noise by 30 dB
only brings it down to a range that is reasonable and not completely damaging
to your hearing. It is definitely not silent by any means. Even if you were
able to make it silent, the mechanisms on most handguns and rifles make enough
noise when they cycle to be easily heard at a reasonable distance.
Silencers were made illegal to
own in the United States by the National Firearms Act of 1934 because people
thought that if they were silent, bad guys could do mass shootings without
being detected. Silencers can be purchased similar to a gun purchase, but ATF
forms for the transfer from the gun store to the purchaser had to be sent to
ATF headquarters in Washington along with the $200 application fee and a
roughly six-month waiting period while an FBI background check is completed
before you can take possession. Currently that six-month wait is taking almost
a year. With more and more silencers being purchased, the wait times are just
going to get longer and longer. I will speak more to this in a little bit. It’s
a funny thing, but if you wanted to purchase a silencer/suppressor in Europe,
all you would need would be the appropriate amount of cash. European nations
such as Finland, France, Germany, Italy and Britain, among others, an
individual who is licensed to own a firearm is always allowed the appropriate
suppressor. Many European guns are sold with suppressors already attached. The
policy is that if a person is legally authorized to possess a firearm, then it
is generally preferable for that firearm to have a suppressor. Simply stated,
they are regulated just like holsters and scopes are. Suppressors have the
benefit of both decreasing the likelihood of hearing loss and decreasing noise
pollution from hunting and shooting ranges. In the UK, Europe, and Scandinavia,
they recognize the health and environmental benefits of suppressors, so they
are sold over the counter without much regulation at all.
What a lot of people don’t
understand is that silencers not only reduce sound but reduce hearing
difficulties and deafness as a result of that sound. Most instructors that I
have ever met that have been in that line of work for a long time have hearing
aids. If you watch the shooting programs on the sportsman’s channel, you can
notice that almost all of the older instructors have hearing aids. The constant
high decibel sounds that come with shooting can severely damage your ears. Even
with good hearing protectors, the sound is loud enough over a long period of
time that it can become debilitating. Silencers are able to suppress the noise
to a level that your hearing can tolerate better. Even with silencers, it is
highly recommended that hearing protection still be worn. Hearing damage begins
to occur at about 85 decibels, about the sound of a hairdryer. Most hearing
protection sold for shooting purposes has noise suppression in the range of 21
to 30 dB. That still leaves a fairly loud noise that can damage hearing over
time. If you combine the noise suppression of the hearing protectors in
combination with a good silencer, that comes out to a 55 to 60 dB reduction in
noise. That brings most firearms into the range that is not damaging to your
hearing. That is the primary reason for having a silencer/suppressor for your
firearm, the ability to hear and understand what your grandchildren are saying
to you.
Suppressors have the benefit of
both decreasing the likelihood of hearing loss and decreasing noise pollution
from hunting and shooting ranges. This is a big deal in Europe where most
shooting is done in closer proximity to towns and villages then in a lot of
areas in this country due to the population density.
Another reason to own a
suppressor that is not commonly discussed, is the fact that they also suppress
the recoil on a firearm. I myself like to shoot large bore, big caliber pistols
and revolvers a lot more than I enjoyed my .22’s. Due to some medication that I
use, I tend to bruise very easily and a day of shooting my .45 auto can leave
my hands very sore and bruised. The suppressor I use tends to reduce the recoil
of my pistol by roughly 40%. It makes shooting a lot more enjoyable, especially
the next day.
What I would like to bring to
your attention is the Sportsmen Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act that
is currently being reviewed by several congressional subcommittees. The Act has
16 titled sections within it that cover a sweeping list of subjects ranging
from Good Samaritan search and rescue and polar bear conservation to the
management of federal lands for recreational purposes. Buried in the middle of
it is the Hearing Protection Act (HPA).
What is the Hearing Protection
Act? In the current Congress, the Hearing Protection Act (HPA) is H.R. 367 in
the House (sponsored by Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C.) and S, 59 in the Senate
(sponsored by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho). The HPA retains all of the Gun Control
Act’s provisions on suppressors. In other words, purchasing a suppressor would
continue to be subject to all the rules that apply to purchasing or possessing
an ordinary firearm but it removes silencers from the National Firearms Act
(NFA) where it is currently treated the same way as machine guns,
short-barreled shotguns and rifles, grenades, mortars and various other
devices. The HPA removes suppressors from the National Firearms Act, which
means buyers would not have to pay a $200 tax and would not have to go through
a months-long federal registration process.
How many people own
suppressors? As of November 2006, the number of suppressors in the ATF’s
registry was 150,364. By February 2016, the number had risen to 902,805. There
is no doubt that suppressors have become much more popular, especially with
hunters, as CNN has reported. This number seems to be growing exponentially
now.
If you are interested in this
topic and want to see silencers/suppressors become more available, contact your
local congressman and senator and ask them to vote for the Hearing Protection
Act as it is included in the Sportsmen Heritage and Recreational Enhancement or
SHARE Act when it comes up for a vote. If you are new to silencers/suppressors,
talk to a friend who has one and ask their opinion on how they work. They are a
great tool to keep in your shooting bag. If you buy the largest caliber
suppressor that you’re going to need, you can buy the reducers to couple them
up to your other smaller caliber firearms. Or if you have the financing,
ideally you will have one for every gun. However, they tend to run anywhere
from $600 to $2000.
Well that wraps up another
month’s issue of the blog. We hope you’re reading the blog, enjoying it, and
most of all, benefiting from it. If you have comments, please send them to us.
We love to get email. In the meantime, keep your gun clean and your powder dry
and take someone to a shooting range or training class with you. You owe it to
them to improve their skills and enjoy our sport.
