why do we need silencers?
do we need permit to get them?
Because it's nice to shoot quiet guns. Suppressors are NFA items (like full-auto weapons), so there's some red tape involved.
Target practice with a silencer is much more pleasing than without. Even with hearing protection my 45 still hurts.
Just got my first “Tax Stamp”. The suppressor has been released from jail. It took just under 4 months. Getting ready to submit the paper work for a Silencerco-45-Osprey for my H&K USP45. It will be a nice Christmas present to myself.
New Zealand requires them to hold down noise pollution. Guns are really really loud. Ask any long time shooter. (Get close and shout. They are a little deaf.)
You need a permit because suppressors are scary, and it's a given, to liberals, that only mob killers and CIA assassins would want one. They watch TV so they know these things. Back in 1934, they established a federal system, and gave the task of enforcing it to the guys who had just been thrown out of work chasing bootleggers. This made it as hard and as expensive as possible to get one, short of actually and illegally banning them.
Besides, anyone can actually build one in an afternoon, with a modeler's table lathe, and a bagful of copper rivets.
“Why do we need silencers?”
Why do we need mufflers on cars, trucks and motorcycles? We would be safer if we heard them coming.
do we need permit to get them?.......................... Not if you use an oil filter instead? Or a Steve Segal Pop bottle.