Posted on 03/01/2012 4:01:23 AM PST by marktwain
PHOENIX -- Arizonans may soon be able to hunt quieter.
Legislation approved Tuesday by the state House would repeal laws that now prohibit hunters from using any sort of silencer or muffler on their weapons. HB 2728 also would specifically bar the state Game and Fish Commission from imposing any bans of its own.
The 42-14 vote came over the objections of Rep. Russ Jones, R-Yuma, who said it flies in the face of public safety concerns.
"If I have a silencer on a rifle or pistol, I can shoot it off in my backyard and my neighbor won't know about it, even though (firing near a residence) is prohibited by law,' he said. And Jones, who is a hunter, said the devices make no sense even out in the field.
"If I hear other firearms, I'm able to know there is other activity, other hunters in the area,' he said. "With suppressors, you wouldn't know that.'
But Rep. David Gowan, R-Sierra Vista, who crafted the measure, said there are legitimate reasons for hunters to use noise suppressors.
He said weapons with lower recoil are more accurate. Gowan also said that lower recoil means a constituent, a wounded veteran with an artificial shoulder, will be able to go hunting.
Gowan also rejected Jones' arguments that having people firing weapons that others cannot hear can be dangerous.
"I don't understand what he's talking about,' he said, saying that the attachments do not totally silence the sound.
"You can still hear it,' Gowan explained. "It's just the decibels aren't enough to damage your eardrums.'
Nor did he believe that it is bad for hunters not to know others may be nearby.
"If you know it's hunting land, it's hunting land.'
Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Phoenix, said he's not worried because a hunter needs federal approval before being allowed to purchase a silencer.
Thomas Mangan, spokesman for the federla Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said would-be buyers have to go through a more-intensive screening than what is required simply to purchase a weapon. That involves an application and fingerprints as well as approval of the head of the local law enforcement agency.
The bill now goes to the Senate.
Much of the legal push to close down ranges would be reduced if suppressors were cheap and easy to get, as they are in many european nations.
Recoil? Really?
Pretty sure muffler/silencer laws are Federal. States cannot
usurp Federal law. I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.
“If I have a silencer on a rifle or pistol, I can shoot it off in my backyard and my neighbor won’t know about it
When I was a kid (a long time ago) I lived next door to a gentleman with a huge collection of guns. One he showed me was an English made .22 rifle with a foot long suppressor on it. Needless to say we didn’t have squirrel issues in our neighborhood.
What the law allows is that IF you have a federal-registered silencer, THEN you may use it on your hunting rifle. You still have to jump through the hoops to get BATF approval for possession.
I heard that a silencer only drops the sound 15% is that accurate?
This is the stupidest law I’ve ever heard of. I’ve been a hunter all of my life and when I’m in the woods I certainly want to be able to hear shots around me. First - I will know someone is in that direction and won’t go that way. Second- I have gotten many a deer that someone else has shot at and missed and shoved them my way - I’m ready for it to come running over a ridge. Third - I want to KNOW if someone is illegally hunting on MY property. I have had no problem at all calling Fish and Game and having illegal hunters arrested while trespassing on my property and I will continue to do so.
I have a silencer on my CZ75b. It’s still pretty loud, very much like a nail gun, but that sharp ballistic crack is gone.
I am not familiar with that claim but offer antedotal evidence.
Silencer I ‘ve heard on You Tube just make a bigger gun sound like a smaller gun.
But on one of the gun shows featuring ranking sniper rifles, the M110 sounded like the movie PPPPPPPPPPPPFFFFFFFFFTTt.
Thanks for the clarification!
And another reporter named Bill Proctor was reporting on a shooting in Detroit and he actually said "police are looking for a .357 Smith & Wesson Glock Pistol"
Pretty sure muffler/silencer laws are Federal. States cannot
usurp Federal law. I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.
States should and had better be in the business of usurping Federal law, or ultimately they will be buried by it. Federal law is not the end all and be all. Now if it is the Constitution of the United States or the Declaration of independence, I’ve got no issue, but law in and of itself is another story. Just take one example, “shall NOT be infringed”. Ok two examples, how about Roe v Wade, a law unto itself, created out of thin air, very thin air.
I know I shock my head at that too. Then I thought a second about the Physics involved and *think* I know where he *may* be coming from.
As we know a 'silencer' acts by capturing some of the gases in the barrel, lessening the report we hear at the end of a 'silenced barrel' after a round is discharged. Which brings us to Newton's Third Law of Motion:
For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction.Ergo, if some gas is captured, and less leaves the barrel due to the silencer -- The Recoil at the butt end would be less as there's less gas to create that opposite reaction.
This *may* be what he was thinking -- and he's 100% wrong as an AK, AR, SKS, etc. use 'captured gases' to operate. And an AK's 7.62x39 sure does have a bit of a recoil. Not to mention the 7.62x51mm AR-10.
But hey, give him props for thinking. That's more than most pols do when proposing laws.
Plus Ive read silencers screw up the accuracy, there's no rifling, so much for hunting use. As to accuracy at close range I'd have to ask my friend 'Big Vinny' Gambone ;-)
I found out about Newton's Third Law of Motion when I was about seven. We had just learned about it in Elem School and we were also painting the living room. For 'fun' I jumped off the ladder, forward onto our couch. The ladder went in the opposite direction -- right through our window, and it was winter. I soon met my old friend, 'Mr Belt'. (Dam you Issac Newton!)
NOT ACCURATE:
See: Silencer Review.com
A silencer works by capturing much of the gas volume, redirecting it, and cooling it. As such, it seems that it would also reduce visible muzzle flash.
The Constitution is silent on the question of ducks.
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