If you know anything about firearms, you understand why the fact that suppressors are NFA items is absurd.
For those of you who do not, I will explain.
A gunshot is one of the loudest noises that a human being is likely to encounter, outside of jobs explicitly dealing with loud events such as demolitions or construction. Here are some dB values of common firearm calibers:
.22- 130 dB 9mm- 159.8 dB .45acp- 157.0 dB .380acp- 157.7 dB .357mag- 164.3 dB .223 / 5.56- 155.5 dB 12ga- 161.1 dB
For comparison, here are some decibel ratings from other events that you might be able to relate to, according to http://www.hearnet.com/at_risk/risk_trivia.shtml
Subway train from 200ft- 95 dB Power Saw- 110 dB Jet engine winding up from 100ft- 140 dB Rock music, 4 feet from the amp at a concert- 120 dB grand symphony, at it's peak- 120-137 dB
For those who don't know, permanent hearing loss can occur at anything above 98 dB, and you begin to see physical trauma such as sharp pain and potentially ruptured / bleeding eardrums at 125-130 dB (These numbers are reflective of either sustained exposure or sharp exposure). They also do not take in to account enclosed spaces.
What this means is that, for your average person, shooting a firearm without hearing protection is not only potentially able to cause severe pain and hearing loss (possibly permanently), but it's VERY LIKELY to. And while it's true that you should never fire a gun without hearing protection when given the option (Such as at the shooting range), there are some circumstances where it is not always realistic. If someone breaks into your home and you need to grab your home defense weapon, you likely are not also in a situation where you can grab ear protection as well (Indeed, doing so might make you more vulnerable as you wouldn't be able to hear someone moving around). If you are assaulted while out and about, you probably don't even have ear plugs on your person.
A suppressor (Commonly called a Silencer or a Can) does not, despite what the movies tell you, make a gun completely silent. What it does is reduce the dB of a gunshot from "Louder than a jet engine" to "the volume of a power saw." They do not magically make someone able to fire a gun completely unnoticed from someone in the other room (Except in very specific circumstances where the ammunition itself is designed for that purpose). In fact, even in areas where guns are traditionally extremely rare for public possession (Such as in the UK) suppressors are not regulated the way they are in the US. Shooting WITHOUT one in many of these places is considered rude and potentially dangerous.
So I ask, why do we need to regulate these devices as an NFA item? Again, for those who don't know- an NFA item requires a $200 tax stamp, several months of paperwork, and express written permission from the ATF to own. Further, possession, manufacture, or transfer (Selling / buying) one without the above is a MAJOR felony. To give you an idea, it is the same category that we put things like fully automatic weapons into.
Why is a device that in NO WAY WHATSOEVER increases the lethality of a firearm (and indeed, decreases it- suppressors reduce the velocity of the round) subject to one of the strictest federal regulations in the country?
Let's change that.
