I noticed a distinct lack of mention that it takes 200$ and six to nine months to get approval for each silencer today until about halfway through the article, and I seriously doubt SilencerCo would fail to bring that up constantly (or better yet, that ridiculous photo of Form 4's going out before 41F). Despite the fact that *current* regulatory burden on firearm owners is *the* central aspect to any discussion of additional policy restriction or liberation. They also failed to mention that cans would still have to be sold through federally licensed dealers, not "left up to the states" as they suggest.
Anyone else think someone at SS was trolling them with the test gun selection? A gun as obscure & valuable as an XM8 is what they trot out as the generic "HK 223" for the sound comparison? It's not like any NPR-head would know anything about that weapon and how exceptionally rare it is. Methinks it was a subtle yet excellent test of their reporter's knowledge/affinity ("Holy cow! That's an XM8! Can I touch it, can I touch it!") Also "Heckler &
Kotch," though I'll chalk that up to mispronunciation ("Heksgghler and Coke")
"This act is reckless," says David Chipman, a senior policy adviser at Americans for Responsible Solutions and a retired 25-year veteran of the ATF. "And it's a threat to public safety."
Very odd, isn't it, and telling, that whenever any story has anything whatsoever to do with guns comes up, one of these professional talking heads from the same three anti-gun lobbying groups is always 'in the room' ready to chime in with a well-prepared rebuttal? We're usually lucky to get a half-baked unrehearsed answer from some random gun shop owner taken out of context as a 'counter point' when the story is about new gun control measures. It's not like the NRA/ASA/etc don't hand out business cards, they just aren't notified every time the 'unbiased' NPR is going to be publishing an anti-gun hit piece and asked to comment.
Data from
the ATF show that silencers are seldom used in crime. From 2012-15, 390 silencers were recovered from crime scenes where an ATF trace was requested.
Anyone else think that number is really, really, really low? I mean, every month or so we hear about somebody getting busted for making a dozen silencers for gangs in a sting or whatever, so either the ATF isn't running the numbers on the guns at these places (seems doubtful), or local LEO aren't bothering to report the cans to the Bureau for some reason (or not tracking them). Heck, just last year or so there was that guy who got nailed making 100 untraceable junk silencers for 'special ops' ninjas at the behest of some crooked general; was that seriously one quarter of all unlicensed silencer seizures for the last few years? I think this stat may be like the "only a couple dozen people lied on their 4473" figure...
He's planning a similar demonstration for national lawmakers later this spring. And while he knows that the Hearing Protection Act might not be a legislative priority, given issues like health care and tax reform, Williams says he's optimistic that silencer regulations will soon change.
This *is* a tax issue, goobers. I refer of course to congressional Republicans and not the NPR folks, of course. It's only #7 most-viewed on the congress.gov site, clearly nothing but a in insignificant and unserious niche issue, unlike the serious business of;
-nationwide school vouchers
-removing caps on H1B & student visas
-terminating the EPA & Dept Of Education outright
-letting health-insurance companies (i.e. Uncle Sam) require DNA submission & documentation
-and most of all, Pete Sessions' "World's Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017"
https://www.congress.gov/resources/display/content/Most-Viewed+Bills
Yeah, I can't see how they could possibly spare the time for us, either, when there are giant scary spinning dragons to tilt at over & over again.
That law [34 NFA] didn't prohibit the ownership of silencers, but it did make them harder to buy or trade by adding a $200 fee, creating a federal registry and making a longer registration process.
SS should really be pressing for a correction, here. The $200 tax was most definitely prohibitive considering Hiram Maxim's products were less than 10$ altogether at that time, and was the entire point behind the taxation scheme. There was also no "making a longer registration process" because no such nonsense existed before "creating a federal registry."
TCB
