I'm sure everyone's heard about the proposal to make it easier to have a suppressor by eliminating the lengthy and expensive BATF rule about needing to pay $200 for a tax stamp and so forth. From what I have heard, the new rule would require a simple background check, just as a firearm does. But what about homemade suppressors? A person who makes their own (it can be done for almost no money at all for a .22) doesn't go through a background check. But would making and possessing one that is your own creation be legal?
Would homemade suppressors become legal under proposed law?
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Twiki357
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Well, firearm purchases from an FFL require a background check, but it is legal to make your own gun without a BC. So, applying that to suppressors, I would assume that you could legally make your own with no background check required. BUT, you know what assuming does.
barnbwt
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I believe so. Unfortunately, the HPA does not go so far to declare silencers as non-firearms in addition to removing the special NFA tax payments, because a lot of what makes silencer fabrication legally difficult is a host of garbage precedent and rules cooked up by the ATF over the years trying to enforce a crazed fever dream. However, by removing the obnoxious NFA aspects, repair and replacement of silencer parts is made unrestricted, and therefore the *worst* legal dangers of the current system are remedied. You can still get nailed for making silencers or parts you intend to sell/give away without a license, and passage of the HPA would likely herald a large increase in that activity by well-meaning folks.
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Art Eatman
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Nothing is "for sure" until the legislation is a signed done deal. With that in mind, odds are that a personal use, not-for-sale home-made suppressor would be of no concern to BATFE.
Varminterror
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It has always been legal to produce your own suppressors if you completed the paperwork, just like any Class III Firearm, save fully automatics. It has also always been legal to produce your own non-NFA firearms, submitting to the legal classifications of each.
If released from the NFA, then homemade suppressors would likely still be considered a non-NFA firearm, so you'll be restricted from sale of homemade suppressors for profit without a manufacturers license, just as we are today for producing non-NFA firearms.
Releasing from the NFA will finally allow those few states to act upon the laws they have passed, like Kansas, which certifies if a suppressor is manufactured within the state and does not cross state lines, it is not restricted by federal authority. So in those few states, manufacturers will be able to produce cash & carry, non-FFL required suppressors. At least in theory; notwithstanding whether any manufacturers will actually step up and do so.
If released from the NFA, then homemade suppressors would likely still be considered a non-NFA firearm, so you'll be restricted from sale of homemade suppressors for profit without a manufacturers license, just as we are today for producing non-NFA firearms.
Releasing from the NFA will finally allow those few states to act upon the laws they have passed, like Kansas, which certifies if a suppressor is manufactured within the state and does not cross state lines, it is not restricted by federal authority. So in those few states, manufacturers will be able to produce cash & carry, non-FFL required suppressors. At least in theory; notwithstanding whether any manufacturers will actually step up and do so.
Why would you apply that reasoning to the manufacture of a suppressor? Why would you assume anything?
Have you read the proposed law? What in the proposed law supports your assumptions?
Have you read the proposed law? What in the proposed law supports your contentions?
The bottom line --
- Unless you have read the proposed law and understand what it says in relation to other applicable laws, you can't possibly answer to the OP's question.
- Until the law is finally enacted, you can't know the final language of the law and therefore can't possibly answer the OP's question.
- When dealing with serious legal questions guesses and assumptions are worthless.
We're done here.
Because the proposed law very specifically and clearly states that silencers would be treated the same as long guns.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/367/text
If they're treated the same as long guns it logically follows that it would be legal to make them at home, since it's perfectly legal to make long guns at home.
No.
First, the Bill in it's current form doesn't say exactly that. When we're trying to understand what a statute says and how a statute will work we look at the actual text of the statute, not a summary of the Bill. So what the Bill actually provides is:
But most importantly, that is only what the Bill in its current, House of Representatives form now says. There is no guarantee that if the Bill is finally enacted the text will be exactly the same. It's a long road from here to this becoming law, and a lot can happen. The Bill could be amended multiple times.
What counts is the final text of the law signed by the President.
Varminterror
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It does remain to be true TODAY - if you produce your own suppressor TODAY, and Form 1 it, you'll get a refund on said tax, according to the way the bill is proposed TODAY.
And yes, I have, multiple times, read the bill. It's public, we all have access to it.
And yes, I have, multiple times, read the bill. It's public, we all have access to it.
No it's not true today, because that's not what the law is today. There's a Bill currently proposing to amend the law to make it that way, but that Bill hasn't been enacted.
I'm going to cut this off because it's speculative.
We have a link to the current form of the Bill, so if anyone wants to see what it says now he can do so.
But there is no way to know what people will or will not be able to do if this Bill goes forward and ultimately becomes law. We can only know that when the law is final and on the books. Reading the current Bill doesn't really tell us anything about what the law will finally be.
We have a link to the current form of the Bill, so if anyone wants to see what it says now he can do so.
But there is no way to know what people will or will not be able to do if this Bill goes forward and ultimately becomes law. We can only know that when the law is final and on the books. Reading the current Bill doesn't really tell us anything about what the law will finally be.
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