Unlikely to pass, but a good idea none the less. The bill would remove the $200 tax stamp on suppressors and make them a normal 4473 item handled by FFLs the way a firearm would be as far as the FedGov is concerned.
Yes, I know they shouldn’t be regulated at all beyond a basic buyer-beware consumer-safety sort of “do they work as advertised” thing, but it would be another step in the right direction. It would also help the economy by increasing demand for something domestically-made.
So, my governor up here in Montana had two bills on his desk last legislative session. One from the Republicrates that said silencers OK for hunting. One from the Demicons stating silencers OK as long as they were registered with the ATF. Guess which one the moron signed? Stupid SOB. Setting aside the whole irritation of making state fish cops enforce federal rules, WTF am I supposed to do if this passes? The ATF won’t be interested in having paperwork filed to fulfill some stupid state law. The state cops could get all sticky because it would be ‘registered’. Some days I just want to strangle the idiots that don’t think through the consequences of their actions.
I’m betting I’ll never find out because I can’t see it making it out of congress, let alone getting signed.
It would be nice and makes a great deal of sense.
So, it’ll probably die a quick death.
The best part of the HPA would be that since suppressors would be a normal 4474 item, treated the same as any rifle or handgun, then homemade suppressors would get a lot cheaper. One can be turned out with nothing more than a drill press, some files, drill bits and taps and a well made aluminum .22 suppressor probably has $50 of materials in it.
You can also make them with a 3d printer.
It also would be economical for companies to start making/importing the more “Disposable” suppressors that are found in other countries that don’t regulate them at all.
I remember seeing an all-polymer pre-water-filled suppressor made by Glock that was only good for essentially one string of fire. That probably wouldn’t be worth the 4473 transfer, but a .22 Can that was dirt cheap, but probably not great after a year would be just fine. Probably shops would have drop boxes for you to properly dispose of your used up cans.
On thehomegunsmith.com, P.A.Luty described how to make one out of steel wool and a soda bottle.
That website seems to be offline right now. I wonder if it’s gone, or just temporarily missing. Strangely enough, I don’t see it on archive.org either.
I copied it just in case, a while back.
I see that website now, and I also see it on archive.org. Strange, I wonder why it didn’t seem to be in the archive before.
This is the kind of thing you piggy back on some other bill, much like the “guns in national parks” legislation came to pass.
By itself, it’s going to die, but the very fact that it was proposed at all indicates the waning power of the “gun control” cultists.
I had one of my ‘perverse’ thoughts a few minutes ago and tried to use reverse psychology on the HuffPuffers and dhimmicrats
With the usual knee-jerk reaction to anything the pro-gun side does, we should have got the NRA, GOA, CCRKBA et al. to begin rumor mongering about the anti’s coming up with some kind of “mandatory gun muffler” law.
If they would’ve really gone on a strong campaign about it, I think the anti-gunners would’ve gone hog wild and actually had one of their normal stooges introduce such a law.
After the usual bout of ‘compromise’, what we wanted in the first place would’ve been on the president’s desk and signed before they knew what hit them.
*sigh* Oh well.
I’ll accept this, as it currently is, because it’s a step in the right direction and I’ll take what I can get.
I’d rather see suppressors be “undefined” from the NFA and therefore be completely unrestricted just like any other muzzle device. Buy them off the accessory rack in the local gun store, or online, even from Amazon 🙂
I visited New Zealand a couple of years ago.
On a whim, I wandered into the bait and tackle shop in one small town that we visited. Sure enough, suppressors by the row, available off the shelf, no questions asked.
That’s the way it should be everywhere.
Ye, that would be the ideal. Slip a single line or two striking some obscure items referred to only by section and paragraph, and then *poof* they are nothing but a hunk of metal to be bought and sold like any other accessory.
“Well, I guess you should have read what was in the bill before you voted, eh?” we could reply. “Now you know what’s in it.”