Separating Fact from Fiction: Breaking the Silence on Silencers

We’ve all seen it in the movies: an assassin perched in a high overlook methodically assembling a strangely complicated rifle he pulled from a black case. Suspense builds as he screws a silencer onto the end of the barrel. With little more than a “pfft” sound emanating from the rifle, his hapless target falls dead, and the victim’s security entourage is left in a scramble to react and locate the shooter as he stealthily slips away.

Pop culture has shaped our view of guns — particularly silencers. This fictional perception has even shaped national gun-control policy. As gun-rights advocates, we need to inject some reality into the discussion in order to protect and expand our continuing access to these relatively mundane accessories.

Understanding Silencers

Firearm silencers — also known as “suppressors,” “mufflers” or the less-formal “cans” — are defined by 18 U.S.C., § 921(A)(24) as “any device for silencing, muffling or diminishing the report of a portable firearm, including any combination of parts, designed or redesigned, and intended for the use in assembling or fabricating a firearm silencer or firearm muffler, any part intended only for use in such assembly or fabrication.” These accessories are generally regulated and taxed under the National Firearms Act, which places substantial barriers to purchasing or transferring one of the devices. Various state laws control silencers, and some states ban them outright.

The issue is how much these accessories should be regulated. Should we be able to order them online and have them shipped overnight to our homes? Does control of silencers need to match firearms? Should you have to send in a set of fingerprints, get a local sheriff or police chief to endorse your request, submit a check for $200 and then wait a year? Or should states ban silencers outright?

Right now, most Americans have to navigate that convoluted fingerprints-and-waiting process under the National Firearms Act. It is an unnecessary level of restriction. Citizens have to jump through bureaucratic hoops that are wildly disproportionate to the hazards silencers present to public safety. In fact, silencers present an incredibly low risk to anybody.

Not So Silent After All

Let’s get the facts straight. Most silencers are simply not very quiet. The majority of commercially available silencers with commercially available bullets muffle the sound of a gunshot down to about 130 to 140 decibels, which is roughly comparable to standing near a military jet during takeoff. There are combinations of gun, bullet and silencer that can make it quieter, but those are relatively uncommon. If someone shoots a silenced pistol or rifle in your vicinity, you will probably hear it.

Let’s get the facts straight. Most silencers are simply not very quiet.

Silencers make guns less concealable, which is a major disadvantage to criminals. The majority of criminals try to hide their intent (and their guns). Most commercially available silencers add about 6 inches to the end of a gun, making it that much harder to conceal.

Silencers are mechanically very simple and can easily be illegally made or improvised, yet we hardly ever see them used among even sophisticated criminals. (Detectives call that a “clue.”) Indeed, silencers are so rarely used in violent crimes that it is hard to find meaningful statistics on them. The ATF has internally used numbers suggesting that, despite the fact that there are more than 1 million silencers registered under the National Firearms Act, less than 0.003 percent of silencers are used in violent crimes. And only about 44 defendants per year are prosecuted for criminal use of silencers.¹

What Are They Good For?

Silencers diminish hearing damage for shooters and nuisance noise from ranges. Even a single shot near an unprotected ear can cause lasting hearing loss. Our opponents often demand “gun safety” but tend to recoil at any suggestion that actually enhances safety. Earplugs protect the person wearing them, but a silencer protects everyone near the gunshot.

Cutting the noise down at shooting ranges will reduce hearing loss, enhance range safety — shooters can hear hazards and range officer commands — and make shooting ranges better neighbors in the community. And make no mistake: Courtesy is a serious consideration in the discussion about silencers. As urban sprawl accelerates, it is getting harder to find sport-shooting venues with good distance from nearby homes and businesses. Silencers may not make shooting completely silent. But they do bring the sound down enough to help keep the neighbors from getting too annoyed.

Even a single shot near an unprotected ear can cause lasting hearing loss.

As we engage with skeptics and opponents of gun rights, one of the most useful actions we can take is to invite an individual out to the range. Let him or her hear normal gunfire and then let him or her hear a suppressed shot (if you have the equipment available). That common understanding will go a long way toward breaking up the person’s fictional perception and bringing him or her toward a more common-sense approach to guns. Let’s stop letting Hollywood shape gun policy. Silencers can engender courtesy and safety in shooting sports, and they aren’t very sexy to criminals like the movies and TV shows portray them to be.

Endnotes

(1) Stephen Gutowski, “ATF: 1.3 Million Silencers in U.S. Rarely Used in Crimes,” The Washington Free Beacon, Feb. 17, 2017,https://freebeacon.com/issues/atf-despite-nearly-1-3-millionsilencers-united-states-rarely-used-crimes/.