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Firearm silencers could soon get deregulated if the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cleared the House earlier Thursday, prevails in the Senate.
Buried deep in the megabill is a provision that would scrap a $200 federal excise tax on silencers and remove them from registration requirements under the National Firearms Act in a significant win for gun rights and hearing protection advocates.
“This is a massive 2A victory — one that takes important steps toward restoring our constitutional freedoms,” Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), a gun store owner, who aggressively lobbied for the measure, said.
Contrary to what the name implies and many movies suggest, silencers don’t actually make gunshots go silent, proponents argue. Instead, they are used to direct gases from the gun’s barrel through a series of chambers to reduce the sound of the loud bang.
On average, they can muffle the sound of a gunshot 20–35 decibels. Gunshots generally have an average of 150-170 decibels. For comparison, mowing the lawn usually averages between 85 to 96 decibels.
Virtually all experts recommend wearing hearing protection while firing guns, even with silencers on them.
“There is a common misconception that suppressors can actually eliminate the noise of a gunshot, and that could not be further from the truth,” Knox Williams, the president and executive director of the American Suppressor Association (ASA), told The Post.
“In reality, suppressors do reduce the noise of a gunshot to safer levels, but they are still incredibly loud,” he added. “Gunshots are so loud that without adequate hearing protection, they will cause permanent hearing damage.”
Gun rights activists generally prefer the term “suppressor” to describe silencers to counter public perception about them.
Accused killer Luigi Mangione used a 3D-printed “ghost gun” and a silencer during his alleged assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The firearm attachments remain banned in eight states as well as the District of Columbia.
Democrats railed against the move to lighten rules on silencers and furnished an unsuccessful amendment to strike that policy from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“Silencers make mass shootings worse, more deadly,” Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI), whose state bans silencers, said Wednesday. “They make it harder for victims and law enforcement to locate the source of the shooting. What is beautiful about that?”
An initial iteration of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act only eliminated the excise tax on silencers, but Clyde and others managed to tack on an amendment scrapping registration requirements during a last-minute amendment.
Clyde also sought to deregulate registration requirements for short-barreled rifles (SBRs), short-barreled shotguns (SBSs) and any other weapons (AOWs), but was unsuccessful.
Gun rights groups such as the ASA and the National Rifle Association have long lobbied in favor of loosening federal barriers to the sale of silencers and have impressed upon lawmakers concerns about hearing loss from guns that lack suppressors.
Williams argued that removing silencers from the National Firearms Act is an important step to encourage gun owners to purchase them.
“Gun owners are rightfully very distrustful and averse to any sort of registration requirements. History shows that when there are registries of guns, oftentimes it’s just a matter of time before the government that maintains that registry comes to try and take those guns away,” Williams added.
Studies cited by ASA found that 70% to 80% of hunters don’t wear adequate ear protection. The group argued that making it easier for them to use silencers will help reduce hearing loss.
Over half of Senate Republicans backed the Hearing Protection Act earlier this year to remove silencers from registration requirements under the National Firearms Act.
“Firearm silencers should not be subject to overregulation and unconstitutional taxes that hamstring Texans’ freedoms and pocketbooks,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), one of the Hearing Protection Act co-sponsors, said after the House passed the megabill. “I’m proud to see the House stand up for law-abiding gun owners.”
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is a bundle of legislation specially designed to bypass the 60-vote threshold needed to break a Senate filibuster by taking advantage of the cumbersome budget reconciliation process.
There are strict rules governing that process — namely the Byrd Rule — and reconciliation bills generally have to pertain the government spending or taxation.
Otherwise, they won’t survive “Byrd Bath” scrutiny from the Senate parliamentarian.
Proponents of the silencer measure argue that it is Byrd Rule compliant because the National Firearms Act essentially uses the tax code to register guns.
English (US)