What makes a silencer illegal
The parts necessary for building a suppressor from home can thus be bought on Amazon or niche sellers like Quiet Bore, without regulation. Though not household names, some of the specialized sellers have attracted dedicated followings, as online comments attest.
According to interviews with former federal agents, gun retailers, and lawyers, two problems underpin this expanding gray market: First, long wait times incentivize quick workarounds like solvent traps that can easily be converted to silencers. Second, the ATF has issued technical opinions that make those workarounds extremely challenging to prosecute.
Such challenges compound work the agency already considers low-priority. Dogged by a lack of funding and inadequate technology, the former associate deputy director of the ATF, Ronald Turk, wrote in a leaked white paper that the agency should consider removing silencers from the list of items regulated under the National Firearms Act to ease the burden on ATF staff.
He noted that there had been numerous complaints to Congress about processing times for suppressor applications, which make up the vast majority of registrations under the act. The technical rulings do not take into account how effectively the items suppress sound.
He said they have allowed companies to sell otherwise regulated devices without accountability. In an email, Scott Curley, a spokesperson for the ATF, denied that the agency has issued inconsistent rulings.
He said the ATF sets rules for selling suppressors in accordance with the Gun Control Act , which requires agents to prove the intended use of any parts they call silencers in order to bring a case.
This makes technical assessments notoriously difficult. Got a tip for us? Use SecureDrop or Signal to securely send messages and files to The Verge without revealing your identity. The federal government began regulating silencers in , following an era in which they frequently did turn up in crimes.
But ATF agents today insist that criminals seldom use the devices in violent crimes. According to one study , federal courts prosecuted cases involving silencers between and , and a criminal fired a weapon in only 2 percent of them. Suppressed gunfire is still louder than a chainsaw.
The rarity of silencer crime today may be due to tight federal regulation, but criminals do sometimes seek out the devices. In July, two men were arrested in connection with a robbery of an Indiana gun store, in which they stole two silencers. Here are just five of them:. One of the great joys of hunting is being outdoors and enjoying the tranquility of nature. The report of a gunshot is loud. Given that hunting is a lifetime pursuit for most people, that percentage can add up faster than you might think.
Every hunter knows that shot placement is key to a successful harvest. One of the easiest ways to improve the accuracy of your shot placement is by using a suppressor. This is because of physics. In addition to quieting your shot, a suppressor also reduces felt recoil and muzzle climb. Easier shooting leads to easier accuracy which leads to easier hunting. Hunting with a suppressor can help protect others around you. There might be other hunters who are outside your line of sight but still within earshot.
If you choose to wear traditional hearing protection, you might not know that those other hunters are there. It also helps protect your hunting partners, both human and animal. Your kids or grandkids can enjoy the sounds of nature without risking their hearing when it comes time for you or them! If your type of hunt involves dogs, using a suppressor helps preserve their hearing, too.
Suppressors let you bring less gear into the woods. If you choose to hunt unsuppressed and wear some kind of hearing protection, then those earplugs or earmuffs are just one extra thing for you to remember to pack and haul in and out of the woods. Suppressors generally reduce the sound of a gunshot from dB. This is roughly equivalent to the reduction you get from earplugs or earmuffs. You might be thinking that a suppressor is just an extra thing to remember, pack, and haul, too, but most people take to the woods with their suppressor already mounted on the muzzle of their gun.
Like we said before: generally speaking, if you can own a firearm then you can own a suppressor. Find out whether silencers are legal to own in your state. You submit your forms and wait, sometimes for eight or nine months.
People get in trouble, Kelsey explained, when they try to bypass that process. Currie tried to sell a homemade silencer online and wound up with a prison term. He was caught when the guy who wanted to buy it called the Brookings Police Department to ask if the transaction was legal. Kelsey said anyone who wants a silencer should do some research first and not just on federal laws.
Silencers are illegal in 10 states. He also said it's important for buyers to realize that an NFA item is a long-term commitment. There are plenty of reasons to consider a silencer, he said: It improves accuracy for long-range shooting, lets a user shoot without ear protection and lets them shoot without disturbing the neighbors. Ridding your property of prairie dogs or coyotes is another selling point.