I never thought I’d spend so much time talking about suppressors, but here we are. While the latest incarnation of the Hearing Protection Act is effectively stalled, at best, and we’re looking at possibly having to settle for just a reduction in the cost of the tax stamp, it seems that the anti-suppressor hysteria is continuing along just fine.

We’ve outlined a couple of examples lately, but the latest comes from the Violence Policy Center’s Campaign for Gun Industry Accountability in an email they sent to supporters on Thursday.

In recent years, a top priority for the gun lobby and firearms industry has been to expand the market for the sale of firearm silencers as a new profit center. Right now the NRA and its financial partners in the gun industry are pushing legislation on Capitol Hill to de-regulate silencers, which currently come under the more restrictive sales criteria of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA), the federal law that also covers machine guns and short-barreled rifles.

This marketing shift was on full display at the public show of new guns that’s the centerpiece of the NRA’s annual meeting, which was held last month in Atlanta.

Honestly, go read the whole thing, complete with pictures, because it’s hilarious. Unintentionally so, in fact.

For example, they bring up “suppressor-ready” firearms being present, as if that’s a huge thing. I’m sitting here looking at that like, “Dude. It’s an extended and threaded barrel. That’s it.”

I was at the NRA Annual Meeting, as was Cam. I walked around and saw these displays, and I saw how many of them there were.

It’s far from some dominating force on the display floor, let me tell you. Now, this was my first annual meeting, so it might have ticked up compared to previous years, but of the 14 acres of displays, handguns, rifles, and accessories were still far more prevalent than suppressors ever were. Even the suppressor-ready firearms, which were definitely there but have been around for ages, were only a small portion of the handguns and rifles on display.

Of course, keep in mind that suppressors have been available for as long as there have been suppressors. The National Firearms Act regulated them, but suppressors don’t have the added burden of something like the 1986 machine gun ban, reducing supply. It means a lot of people interested in owning NFA items start with things like short-barreled rifles and suppressors.

I note that the VPC doesn’t mention the SBRs, which were a lot more common than the suppressors.

What we’re seeing in this is nothing more than fearmongering. They lament that a company like Silencer Central offers a service that streamlines the paperwork for consumers, but fails to understand that it’s the inevitable result of burdensome regulations. They’re not doing anything that sidesteps the process. They’re just making it easier for folks as part of their business model.

Then we have the last sentence of this email blast, which leaves me laughing hysterically at the stupidity. 

“Left unstated is the fact that deregulating silencers would threaten public safety while allowing for the creation of a new category of firearm—guns with integral silencers—with the goal of reselling current gun owners while hopefully appealing to potential new customers,” it says, but integrally suppressed guns aren’t exactly new ground waiting to be tread. They exist now, with current laws, and a lot of people love them. There’s a reason I chose one for the image on this post, actually. I love the concept, myself, though I’ve never had a chance to shoot any such weapon. 

But what we see is just how little the so-called gun violence experts understand about guns, much less suppressors.