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U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- On 7 January 2020, John Andrews was the target of a “controlled delivery”. A controlled delivery is where contraband has been intercepted and is delivered to a suspect as part of a warrant for a search. Acceptance of the parcel containing the contraband is part of the necessary conditions for service of the warrant.The parcel in question was a solvent trap ordered from China. Solvent traps are not contraband.The warrant claimed the solvent trap was an illegal silencer. New York is one of only eight states where it is completely illegal to possess a silencer.Agencies present at the...

Image from Marine.mil Knight Armaments Company Suppressor on M38 cropped and scaled by Dean Weingarten The Marine Corps is well on its way to procuring suppressors (silencers) for all small arms in its arsenal.In 2020, the Marines have procured 6,700 suppressors for M4, M4A1, and M27 rifles. Suppressors are in common use with the M38 squad designated marksman rifle.Another 7,000 suppressors are in the pipeline. The goal is to have about 30,000 suppressors by the fiscal year 2023. From Defense Visual Information Service:In 2020, PM IW procured about 6,700 small arms suppressors through Defense Logistics Agency’s Tailored Logistic Program, and...

Very few people are prosecuted for the illegal possession of silencers/suppressors in the United States. One of the problems in understanding the U.S. criminal justice system is records are dispersed. Records are kept in many different formats, and not easily searchable or sortable by offense. There are both federal and state crimes. The data is not all digitized. When it is, it is not all in searchable databases available to the public.In an academic paper, Criminal Use of Firearm Silencers, written by Paul Clark and published in 2007, the number of prosecutions appears to be very low. From westerncriminogy.org:Perhaps a...

JK Armament Solvent Traps In the first two parts of this on home made silencers series, I wrote of how we arrived at the current situation, historically, and what exists today, in terms of the technology and legal system, for individuals to make their own silencers utilizing the ATF Form 1. Because of the tremendous bureaucratic and monetary infringements imposed by the National Firearms Act (NFA), very few form 1's (required to legally make your own silencer, short-barreled rifle, or shotgun) were processed as late as 1990. In the year 1990, only thirty years ago, a total of 399 Form...

Cautionary Note: All silencers require a $200 tax stamp from the BATFE in the USA.  I caution U.S. readers not to produce one unless you pay the tax and acquire the proper paperwork first.  Any time you are breaking new ground in the world of firearms development, especially when it involves new technologies, we caution you to get the best legal advice in navigating and lawfully complying with the multiple and confusing world of local, state, and federal gun laws. The only stated purpose of this article is to report on new developments and the adaption of new technologies for...

Legally available parts which can be machined into an effective silencer 80% silencers are legal in the United States.  In a society built on individual liberty, with checks and balances on government power, it is difficult to effectively ban a simple item. 80% silencers are collections of partly machined parts, sold for other purposes, which can be made into a silencer with a bit of effort by a hobbyist.  They are the analog of 80% receivers for hobbyists to make their own guns. How did we come to the situation where people are not allowed to purchase a simple...

Opinion: Why The Reverse Paradox Tube is NOT a Firearms Silencer In the previous article about the reverse paradox tube, there was a comment that the BATFE might consider the tube to be a silencer.Legally, the reverse paradox tube is not a silencer. The law is clear, and there is considerable precedent as to why this is so.The definition of a silencer, in the law, is in 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(3): (24)  The terms “firearm silencer” and “firearm muffler” mean any device for silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of a portable firearm, including any combination of parts, designed or...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - A Florida man is charged with providing material support to the Islamic State extremist group, including attempting to buy multiple weapons and scouting potential targets for an attack in the Tampa Bay area, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. A criminal complaint charges Muhammed Momtaz Al-Azhari, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, with attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. The charge carries a potential 20-year prison term. **SNIP** According to the affidavit, Al-Azhari scouted a number of targets in the Tampa Bay region, including beaches, parks and even the Tampa FBI field...

Federal agents do surprise compliance checksA Nebraska gun dealer will spend more than two years in federal prison for possessing an unregistered gun silencer. In U.S. District Court on Friday, Joseph Melton, from Holdrege, NE, was sentenced to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to the charge. Melton will also be on supervised release for two years. Advertisement Melton, 31, was a candidate for mayor of Holdrege in 2018 and was part owner of Leadfoot LLC, a gun shop and manufacturer in Holdrege. Leadfoot obtained a federal firearms license to manufacture and sell silencers. During a compliance check...

The Supreme Court on Monday denied a request to take up a challenge to a federal law requiring the registration of some firearms including silencers. Challengers in the case believe the Second Amendment protects such firearm accessories. An appeals court had held that a silencer is not a "bearable" arm protected by the Constitution. The case comes as a silencer was used during the recent Virginia Beach massacre and President Donald Trump suggested he'd look into restrictions on gun silencers. The Trump administration had also urged the court not to take up the issue. The order was issued without comment...

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) claims the attacker who opened fire on Las Vegas concert goers was only stopped “because he didn’t have a silencer on his weapon.” According to the Washington Post, Kaine asked, “Can you imagine what this would have been if he had silencers on those weapons?” His use of the word “silencer” is an echo of other leftists like Rosanne Cash and Gabby Giffords, both of whom use the word “silencer” to describe suppressors.

Two days after an attacker opened fire on concert goers in Las Vegas, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc) announced he was shelving legislation to deregulate suppressors. -snip- Ryan has now shelved the Hearing Protection Act, which was introduced into Congress on January 9; it is the legislation containing suppressor deregulation. The Act does not legalize suppressors–as they are already legal–rather, it removes the burdensome process for acquiring them and erases the federal tax that must be paid in order to receive permission to posses one. House Speaker Paul Ryan says NRA-backed bill to ease regulations on gun silencers is shelved...

SilencerCo, the innovative silencer company that produces most of the silencers for the United States market, has developed a revolutionary new product. It is an integral silencer on a modern muzzleloader, called the Maxim 50.Josh Waldron of SilencerCo has been one of the strongest voices pushing for reform of the antiquated and poorly conceived National Firearms Act. In 1932, when the Act was passed, no one gave any explanations for including gun mufflers, called silencers. The inclusion of silencers never made any sense. In the rest of the “developed world”, silencers are often regulated much less than guns. In New...

For the first time since the National Firearms Act (NFA) was created in 1934, civilians can enjoy suppressed shooting in all 50 states with SilencerCo’s latest innovation: the integrally suppressed Maxim 50 muzzleloader. In addition, this product can be purchased right now on the web with no regulation (no 4473, no tax stamp, no photographs or fingerprints) at store.silencerco.com and be shipped immediately to the purchaser with few exceptions*. Residents in the 42 states that allow civilian ownership of silencers have to pay a $200 tax, fill out forms, send in photos, submit to fingerprinting, and wait months for the...

Two years ago, Mary Katharine Ham and I published End of Discussion, in which we warned that the Left's politically-correct mob was ruining American discourse. These bullies were increasingly seeking to "win" political and cultural debates by preventing them from happening in the first place, we argued, pointing to leftist tactics to silence and shut down honest conversations through a nonstop barrage of motive-impugning grievances. The book was originally published literally one week prior to Donald Trump's now-iconic escalator descent to announce what appeared to be a long-shot presidential run. Twenty-six months later, he's president, and Berkeley is on fire....

Governor Abbot has signed HB 1819 into law on May 26th, 2017. The law goes into effect on 1 September. The law makes Texas safe for silencer ownership if/when the Hearing Protection Act (HPA) is passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump.  This is important because the Texas legislature only meets every two years. The law removes silencers from the list of devices that are required to be on the BATF registry for NFA items, only requiring that people who own, manufacturer, transport, repair, or sell silencers in Texas be in compliance with federal law. From...

A bill in the Tennessee Legislature to remove the ban on gun mufflers (silencers, suppressors) has passed the senate with an overwhelming vote, 28-1 on April 3rd, 2017.SB 921 is the companion to HB 0011 in the House. The bill simply  removes  the sections of Tennessee statutes that define and include “silencers” as prohibited weapons. Here is the summary of the bill. From legiscan.com: As introduced, enacts the “Tennessee Hearing Protection Act,” which deletes the prohibition on possession, manufacture, transport, repair, or sale of a firearm silencer. – Amends TCA Section 39-17-1301 and Section 39-17-1302. Those sections would be...

In 2015 the Hearing Protection Act, which would deregulate suppressors and remove a $200 per unit ATF tax, was introduced into the House. Since then, a few different versions have been up for consideration. Now that Republicans are the majority in Congress and with a Republican sitting in the White House, the bill has a decent chance of passing. Not surprisingly, gun control zealots are opposed to the bill for all the wrong reasons. On Tuesday, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand falsely claimed witnesses can't hear gun shots that come from suppressed firearms and argued deregulating this piece of hardware would...

Video of me talking to my Congressman, Rep. Kevin Brady, about the Hearing Protection Act. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7rmPUXbdBo

The Marine Corps is considering suppressing all small arms. Military organizations have historically been slow to adopt new technologies. They have been slow to adopt optical sights, which were overwhelmingly adopted by sportsmen long before they become common for ordinary soldiers. In the U.S. that was during the first Gulf War. Suppressors have been commonly used by sportsmen around the world for decades long before widespread adoption by any military. The United States is the exception, due to irrational regulation. The Marine Corp is in the process of equipping an entire battalion with suppressed small arms. From ameriforce.net: In...