As 2017 started and the newly elected President of the United States Donald Trump began to make the public relations rounds to newspapers and television conglomerates one suggested piece of legislation above all others made gun owners smile with sheer joy. The proposed legislation was the House Resolution Number 367 of the 115th Congress of the United States, better known as HR367, The Hearing Protection Act of 2017. To the uninformed this proposed bill sounds more like a piece of legislation that would fall under the guidelines of the Federal Governments safety arm, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration rather than one that would have anything at all to do with firearms and the National Firearms Act.

Silencers or Suppressors ? What do they do exactly ?

There is a huge pile of misinformation and paranoia about silencers or suppressors as they are known in some circles ( for the record ATF uses the terms interchangeably when you actually buy one or call them about questions so save the speeches terminology). Much of the paranoia about silencers comes from movies and unfortunately a good deal from some members of the law enforcement community. The silencer as we know it was first designed in 1902 by Hiram Maxim and was actually favored by sportsman of all walks of life, not because it made the gun silent rather it lowered potential damage to shooters ears by almost 40 decibels.

The silencer is essentially in simple terms a muffler for your firearms. It doesn’t make a firearm completely silent anymore than a standard muffler makes the average internal combustion engine 100% silent. This is a fact that many pro 2nd amendment advocates such as the National Rifle Association and the American Suppressor Association have been trying to make known and accepted by many ill-informed legislators for years. Until the recent election these facts fell on deaf ears, that was until Donald Trump Junior, the pro 2nd amendment hunter and gun advocate took up the cause.