Replies

It would be a real problem on a muzzleloader. Still the effective ban on most suppressors has been one of the worst public health debacles of the last century. Litterally millions of shooters have lost hearing capacity for the lack of cheap, easily available suppressors.

Litterally millions of shooters have lost hearing capacity for the lack of cheap, easily available suppressors.

That's a perceptive (and IMHO extremely important) observation, which could possibly be used by a proactive sportsman or shooting organization to challenge the current treatment of suppressors under Federal (and some State) regulations by putting forth an argument that the Feds must address the damaging effect of those regulations under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Of course, I am not a lawyer, so I could be mistaken. However that law has been used to challenge, with some success, arguably much more tenuous links between government regulations and their effects on persons with disabilities.

Earlier this year I had considered making such an argument in a response to proposed Customs regulations that would have severely limited importation and/or possibly even manufacture of certain types or categories of knives whose assisted or automated operation was essential to permit their use by persons with certain disabilities. I never did make that argument in a formal filing, because the Congress acted to forestall the implementation of those proposed regulations.