CNN: Gun silencer sales are booming

[Midwest]

CNN: Gun silencer sales are booming

http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/22/news/companies/gun-silencer-sales/

The sky must be falling. In what turns out to be a rather surprising (for CNN) a pro-silencer article on how silencers are more popular than ever. Sales are up 37% in 2013 despite the nine month wait.

The article mentions the expense and how silencers are sometimes more expensive than the guns that they are attached to.

The article goes on to mention that silencers are legal in 39 states and 29 of those states it is possible to go hunting while using a silencer. I wished they would have mentioned that silencers are legal in some countries in Europe. But overall, a generally positive article.

ATF special agent Tim Graden said that silencers are categorized as firearms by the federal government, even though the silencer itself can't fire a bullet. The basic background check for most guns requires the purchaser to present a photo ID to the retailer and electronically submit a form to the ATF. Approval usually takes about 20 minutes. But purchasing a silencer requires the applicant to mail or Fax a photo and fingerprints to the ATF and to pay a $200 tax, with the approval process taking nine or 10 months.



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[AlexanderA]

The sky must be falling. In what turns out to be a rather surprising (for CNN) a pro-silencer article on how silencers are more popular than ever.

A thought just occurred to me. The antigunners have been looking for something to throw out there, by way of "compromise," so that they can get universal background checks. Perhaps they're setting the stage to make suppressors their "throwaway" issue. From their point of view, this makes sense, because nobody can be shot using a suppressor alone. They're after bigger fish (namely the guns to which suppressors are attached).

But if that's true, they may be outsmarting themselves. Once discussion of the NFA is opened, its basic irrationality can be laid bare. This opens the door to all kinds of changes in the NFA.

 

[PistolPete45]

I will just wear the hearing protection thanks A big boom vs the ATF folks being in my life any more then necessary... I will take the boom ...

 

[jerkface11]

They want to ban guns with threaded battles they aren't going to give ground on suppressors.

 

[The_Next_Generation]

Jerkface brings up a good point. They don't want us to be able to attach any of those scary muzzle-devices

I think the likelihood of suppressors being removed from the NFA is very low compared to the chances of universal BG checks becoming a "thing" :banghead:

 

[Jim K]

No, but the antis could put up a big push to ban suppressors, ban "assault weapons", register handguns, etc. Then they will offer to "compromise" by letting owners of suppressors keep them. ("If you like your suppressor, you can keep your suppressor. Period. Or until I ban them and order the summary execution of gun owners.")

Jim

 

[Anmut]

Gun sales way up - check. More CCW permit holders than ever in the US - check. Ammunition shortages due to huge demand - check. Suppressors in huge demand - check. AR-15's/AK47's at the height of their popularity and ownership - check.

Government suddenly wants a war with it's own citizens to ban certain items? Let's hope they're not that stupid. But if so - CHECKMATE.

 

[Anmut]

I will just wear the hearing protection thanks A big boom vs the ATF folks being in my life any more then necessary... I will take the boom ...

You'd be kidding yourself to assume that just because you haven't done an Title II paperwork that you're not already on a list. By simply having an account here at THR you've probably already earned your 'domestic terrorist' badge.

 

[Midwest]

No, but the antis could put up a big push to ban suppressors, ban "assault weapons", register handguns, etc. Then they will offer to "compromise" by letting owners of suppressors keep them. ("If you like your suppressor, you can keep your suppressor. Period. Or until I ban them and order the summary execution of gun owners.")

Jim

In 2012 they showed their hand, in fact they went a step further than the 1994 AWB. And not only that, but they been working on this proposal for a year before Newtown!

How much you wanna bet they already have other forfeitures in the works that we don't know about until they determine the time? Remember as I type this, Gabby, Bloomberg and his Moms group have been going from State Capitol to State Capitol on their UBC tour. Their next goal is to get UBC, passed and Lord help us if that happens. Because that is one step away from total gun registration.

in 2012 Di-Fi suggested that existing owners "may keep" their Black Rifles. (How nice of her..). But only if they were registered under the NFA and could not be transferred to anyone.

http://www.nraila.org/legislation/federal-legislation/2013/stop-the-gun-ban.aspx

"According to a Dec. 27th posting on Sen. Feinstein's website and a draft of the bill obtained by NRA-ILA, the new ban would, among other things, adopt new definitions of "assault weapon" that would affect a much larger variety of firearms, require current owners of such firearms to register them with the federal government under the National Firearms Act, and require forfeiture of the firearms upon the deaths of their current owners. "


"Prohibits the transfer of "assault weapons." Owners of other firearms, including those covered by the NFA, are permitted to sell them or pass them to heirs. However, under Feinstein's new bill, "assault weapons" would remain with their current owners until their deaths, at which point they would be forfeited to the government."

.

 

[CLP]

I will just wear the hearing protection thanks A big boom vs the ATF folks being in my life any more then necessary... I will take the boom ...

I'll second that.

 

[SnowBlaZeR2]

I will just wear the hearing protection thanks A big boom vs the ATF folks being in my life any more then necessary... I will take the boom ...

Suppressors aren't the only NFA items. Why not just get a trust done and solve both problems at once? I don't get the paranoia behind this type of thinking.

 

[Ironman]

Do suppressor naysayers still believe that the ATF will come search your house at anytime just because you have a suppressor? LOLOL

 

[tarosean]

I don't get the paranoia behind this type of thinking.

+1

In about 10 days the registries will have existed for 80yrs. If they had ulterior motives it would have been known by now..

 

[Arizona_Mike]

I never realized so many people are afraid to own NFA weapons.

Mike

 

[boricua9mm]

Do suppressor naysayers still believe that the ATF will come search your house at anytime just because you have a suppressor? LOLOL

They really DO believe that! I think it is the result of layered ignorance on the subject of NFA items. It all starts with the "Class 3 license" beliefs. They think you need to be an FFL with a Class 3 SOT to own them. From there it snowballs to ATF searching your house unannounced. I guess if you were a Class 3 SOT operating out of your home, then you would be subject to such visits. The tin-foilers don't understand that the ATF can't just kick in your door in the middle of the night and ask to see your registered NFA items. Sure, they can contact you and arrange an appointment to see them at a reasonable hour, but that's the extent of it.

You wouldn't believe how many times I've been shooting NFA stuff only to have someone behind me yammerin' about late-night ATF visits, or how NFA is too expensive, or "Why would you want to own that?" Ignorance is strong, especially when it's layered thick.

 

[Tirod]

The biggest suppressor of gun rights is the uninformed shooter. I've had the same experience just owning an HK91 in the 1970's - it was a "machine gun" to anyone who saw it, and me standing in the parking lot at public hunting land meant I was first in line for a license and compliance inspection.

Now MO allows suppressors for hunting, no C&R needed as in the past. The issue is less the $200 fee, paperwork, and delay as much as the cost of one and all the ignorance spouted from the uninformed shooters.

Having suffered enough loss of hearing thru military exposure of firearms, even in an era where hearing protection was mandated, I'd rather have the suppressor. Korea issues one per soldier, American made, and we need to do the same. The cost savings in treating hearing losses would more than offset the government handing them out for FREE. Same as college tuition, it's just a game we play because we accept things from tradition rather than get all the facts and make a better decision.

Saying "I'd rather put up with hearing protection than the government" really sounds like the guy who refused to go to the doctor because he was afraid they would find cancer - and dying of a burst appendix. Sometimes we make more of something than it really is because we actually fear finding out we are flat out wrong. It's just easier to gripe than learn better, just to save face and appear macho.

I sell car parts, you would be astounded - if you knew better - what the "average guy" knows is mostly wrong. Obviously, same for guns, too. I'm not going to soft shoe this, gun owners are the biggest problem in America about guns. The anti gunners we know are largely ignorant, what we don't see often is that our own are just as bad.

There is nothing illegal or immoral about owning NFA items - until you ask someone else who thinks they know about guns, and then you hear stuff you'd expect to come from Handgun Control.

We have seen the enemy, and he is us.

The reason suppressors are selling so well now? WE are learning better. Keep it up.

 

[medalguy]

Tirod is right. We are our own worst enemy. Uninformed gun owners do more damage to the gun rights issue than antis. How about all the fudds who think it's OK to ban black guns because they don't own one, and why would you need one of those anyway?

In the same vein, I think I heard a news story this past weekend say that the most respected news anchor in the country is.....wait for it.....Jon Stewart. That says a LOT about the American public's capabilities unfortunately.

 

[Mike OTDP]

NFA is too expensive. Priced a subgun lately?

On a more serious note, the amount of misinformation floating around is absurd. One of the best features of the internet is that you can get facts much more quickly. I'm convinced that this has been a large part of the explosion of interest in NFA hardware.

Not that suppressors should be NFA at all - but that is another story.

 

[wally]

How about all the fudds who think it's OK to ban black guns because they don't own one,

The Fudd's better watch their backs as there are a lot of new female shooters coming on line, who like my wife, would gladly vote to ban all hunting to save their Disneyfied view of nature. Shooting crooks and rapists, fine, but cute critters no way!

 

[JERRY]

elections have consequences. vote wisely, or sit it out because your boy didn't win the primary....

 

[Sol]

I never realized so many people are afraid to own NFA weapons.

Mike

If I need an LEO signoff to get approved, it probably ain't happening.

(I live in a "progressive" suburb, complete with bike lanes, some of my family that have lived here have a not so good repotoire with the judge and LEO, guilt by relation so to speak)

Maybe if I can find somebody to make a trust at a reasonable price, then maybe.

I also hate waiting. I don't want to wait 6+ months for a threaded tubes with baffles in them.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

For things that take a long time (buying an NFA weapon, loosing weight) the best way to look at is is that the time is still going to pass whether you do it or not.

Mike

 

[Theohazard]

For things that take a long time (buying an NFA weapon, loosing weight) the best way to look at is is that the time is still going to pass whether you do it or not.

Exactly. Of all the reasons not to get an NFA firearm, the wait is one of the worst. At the FFL/SOT where I used to work, I can't count how many customers told me they wanted a silencer, but they didn't get one because of the wait. Then, about a year later, they'd tell me the same thing. It just didn't make sense to me. If the wait is the only thing stopping you, then it makes sense to start the paperwork as soon as possible.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

I can understand the irritation with the wait, especially with class 3 stuff. I've just got an SBR and suppressor pending and that's $3k I had to pay last year for stuff I still can't use. I can't imagine having $25k tied up in a transferrable M16 lower.

 

[MCMXI]

I'm doing my best to help the boom while reducing the boom. I bought four suppressors last year and ordered three more today! Talk about an obsession with suppression.