How to make silencers legal in "no" progressive states

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springwalk

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What does one need to do to make silencers legal in states like California, Massachusetts, Iowa, Illionis and Minnesota that dont allow ownership or the freedom to own a simple piece of aluminum that quiets their firearms? Shall we demand car mufflers be banned too in order to show the stupidity?:cuss:
 
I would suggest writing to your representatives, but that would hardly dent their resolve.

I'd just move to another state if I really wanted one.
 
Yeah outlaw mufflers, say it will save the children, nobody will get hit by a car they didn't hear coming.
It will reduce pedestrians struck by vehicles they didn't realize where there, and save lives! Ban the muffler.

Once everyone drives around that way and driving requires putting on hearing protection and those that don't are going deaf with roads at a constant 120 db they will realize how stupid it is.


An automobile muffler and the firearm silencer were invented by the same guy, and called the same thing. Some English speaking countries still call a muffler a "silencer".
Reducing the sound level of dangerously loud equipment should be an option.

However be careful what you wish for, had things turned out differently I can see antis requiring all guns have silencers installed as a safety measure to protect hearing. Just as is done with automobiles today.
Adding excessive dimensions to firearms you want small and compact.
Then people would be complaining about how guns all have to be longer than they should be, and CCW would be more challenging and may have never even became popular or a widespread legal option as a result.
In the alternate reality where silencers had not been demonized by popular culture, and anti-gun FDR not had one demonstrated to him in his presidential office, we may not have got CCW, and handguns could all have longer dimensions.
Many firearms would come with integral suppressors, and only criminals would be hacking them off or removing their mandatory suppressors for greater concealment in violation of the law.
 
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That is a very interesting take on the issue.

Muffler-->Suppressor is a very reasonable comparison.

While I would very much like to be able to suppress one of my guns, it is equally so that I wouldn't want it to be required.
 
An automobile muffler and the firearm silencer were invented by the same guy
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Really? I've never heard this...not calling you out, if that's true, its very interesting. Then again, this may be something that's quite popular in the NFA section, I usually don't make it over here much. Being in MN has its downsides.
 
What does one need to do to make silencers legal in states like California, Massachusetts, Iowa, Illionis and Minnesota that dont allow ownership...
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Unless this is a trick question the answer is pretty simple: get the law changed.

Nothing else, including violating the law, could possibly make an illegal item legal.
 
Here is how it was done in WA in 2011. Silencer bill 1604 died several times due to poor support by the sponsor. I had been writing letters and meeting with my Reps/Senator and the Judiciary Committee chairman, but nothing really made much of a difference until the bill got a new sponsor that was willing to push the bill through.

When 1604 died for the last time, it was replaced with bill 1016. Representative Blake pushed for a hearing. The meetings I had with my own Representatives bore fruit as they both became co-sponsors.

Several gun owners/silencer owners showed up at the committee hearings. The police sent a representative to support the bill also. The bigger gun control group in the state took a neutral position on the bill, possibly as a result of our lobbying efforts.

So here is what the rest of you in the dozen states need to do.

1. Find a legislator who is willing to sponsor a silencer bill and PUSH it through.

2. Meet with your legislators to tell them why you need silencers. If you are only willing to write letters and e-mail, then you are not actually interested in the right to own silencers. If you do not educate your Senator on silencers, some anti-gun freak is going to do it for you.

3. Show up at committee hearings to support the bill and speak out in support of it. If you do not speak up at committee hearings, then some anti-gun freak will do that too.

Be prepared for your fellow gun owners to tell you that silencers are illegal, immoral or unsportsmanlike. I have been kicked off two forums so far for zealously promoting silencers. Be prepared to battle this issue for several years.

I am trying to change the law in Minnesota; I even met with Senator Wolf who said she would sponsor our silencer bill if she got some support from other Senators. Surprise surprise, did she get any support? Of course not, I and my MN friends were not able to find anyone else who would meet with their Senator and request support. There are far more people who insist on whining on gun forums instead of getting off their asses to meet with their legislators face to face. If think they would rather complain instead of making silencers legal to own. This is why silencers are illegal in 12 states, gun owners do not give a damn.

Ranb
 
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Really? I've never heard this...not calling you out, if that's true, its very interesting.
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He was not the first to file a patent or invent the automobile exhaust, but he invented several designs before they were even standard and noisy unmuffled engines were making cities loud, and regularly made automobile mufflers and silencers for several other things.

His dad, the inventor of the first portable full auto machinegun, the Maxim Gun, went deaf from gunfire.


Let me go find some articles that mention some of it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiram_Percy_Maxim

Maxim is also noted as the inventor of the "Maxim Silencer", a suppressor for firearms (patented in 1908) as well as of a silencer (or muffler) for gasoline engines.
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http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,742801,00.html

While mental hygienists, efficiency experts and city officials have been bewailing the maddening effects of city noise, Hiram Percy Maxim has been manufacturing noise mufflers at Hartford, Conn. Last week he announced that his Maxim Silencer Co., of which he is president and his only son Hiram Hamilton is chief engineer and whose factory is in Asylum Street, Hartford, will—besides continuing to make silencers for guns, motor exhausts, safety valves, air releases, in fact every kind of pipe which emits a gas—offer a consulting service in noise abatement.
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