Senator Chuck Schumer doesn’t know the first thing about firearms. Or suppressors, for that matter. But that’s never stopped him from spewing anti-gun fear-mongering nonsense with a straight face. Last week, in one of his latest tirades, he barked: “Who wants a silencer? Not the average citizen. They’re law-abiding. Not our police officers... The only people who want silencers are criminals because they don’t want people to hear their bad, horrible, deadly deeds.”
Go touch some grass, Chuck.
Maybe Schumer has just watched too many 1990s Hollywood action movies, where “silencers” make gunshots sound like whispers in a library. But that’s fantasy, not reality. Even the term “silencers” is a misnomer: they don’t silence anything. They’re sound suppressors, and they merely reduce the decibel levels of gunfire from dangerous levels to those like a jackhammer. Suppressors protect hearing, reduce noise pollution, and make firearm use safer. Suppressors aren’t a tool for stealth; they’re for health and safety.
But because of the outdated and unconstitutional National Firearms Act of 1934, these basic safety tools are regulated like pipe bombs. Purchasing one can require months of bureaucratic process, a $200 tax payment, and inclusion in a federal registry. Imagine being required to beg the government and pay a ridiculous tax just to buy Apple Airpods Max noise canceling headphones. That’s essentially where we are.
Senate Democrats, led by Schumer, want to keep it that way. They’ve already vowed to kill the provision included in President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” that just passed the House with three important provisions relating to suppressors: one removing the vital hearing protection devices from the extreme regulations of the NFA and two others zeroing out the currently required additional taxes for making or transferring the safety devices. It’s a long-overdue fix, and one backed by science, common sense, and constitutional principles.
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In their blind opposition, Democrats have resorted to the tired, dishonest narrative that suppressors are a gift to criminals. Never mind that actual data shows criminals almost never use them. And never mind that research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that “the only potentially effective noise control method to reduce students’ or instructors’ noise exposure from gunfire is through the use of noise suppressors that can be attached to the end of the gun barrel.”
This conclusion has been affirmed by many other health experts, not to mention real-world experience. In fact, late last year, the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) endorsed “the use of firearm suppressors as an effective method of reducing the risk of hearing loss, especially when used in conjunction with conventional hearing protective measures.”
Now that suppressor regulatory reform is on the table, suddenly Democrats are pro-law enforcement. Schumer even had the gall to say, “You cannot call yourself pro-law enforcement while voting to put more silencers in criminals’ hands.” Senator, you don’t speak for law enforcement. You certainly don’t speak for America’s 100-million-gun owners. And you clearly don’t care about the Constitution.
Fortunately, the tide is turning. A legal challenge to the NFA’s tax and registration regulations on suppressors, backed by the Firearms Policy Coalition, is on appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Lawyers for the appellant in that case are showing that federal suppressor laws are not just illogical, they’re unconstitutional.
The NFA’s suppressor provisions serve no legitimate government interest and stand as a monument to paranoia and misinformation. It's not the role of the federal government to restrict a constitutionally protected product that enhances public safety, protects hearing, and is almost never misused. These important safety tools are no different than hard hats, safety glasses, and fire extinguishers and should be widely available for personal use, not taxed out of the reach of ordinary Americans.
The U.S. House of Representatives has done its job by passing suppressor deregulation in their version of the Big Beautiful Bill. Now it’s up to the Senate to decide whether it will continue to pander to hysterical anti-gun rhetoric or finally listen to reason – and the Constitution.
Suppressors don’t make guns silent. But silence from federal lawmakers in the face of blind anti-gun ignorance? That’s truly deafening.
The Senate should preserve and pass the House’s common-sense suppressor reforms. It’s time to stop treating suppressors like contraband and instead like the safety tools they are. The American people – and their eardrums – deserve better.
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