The Truth About Silencers

So I’ll admit it. I didn’t really know anything about silencers except for what I’ve seen in movies where they use them to shoot people quietly.

According to this article on silencers on arstechnica turns out how silencers are portrayed in movies is incorrect. They say it actually just makes the sound quieter to the point that you don’t need earplugs when you shoot. An exception would mainly be the .22 silencer in the article which does seem to fit the common perception.

The bottom line…silencers really are not just for bad guys doing killings. In the article they pose several reasons why normal people would want a silencers.

  1. You can target shoot without earplugs and avoid disturbing the neighbors quite as much
  2. You can shoot while hunting without going deaf
  3. Animals are not quite as disturbed while shooting at them
  4. Protection of hearing for hunting dogs

Another miss-conception I held was silencers are illegal. According to the article the only states they are illegal in are: “California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.” So….actually they are legal in a lot of states.

The bad news is to purchase a silencer does not just require a transaction with an FFL, but also “pay[ment] $200 for a BAFTE tax stamp and fill out some paperwork.” In addition to that the article points out that silencers often cost as about as much as or more then a gun does.  So, I don’t think I’ll be getting one anytime soon.

An interesting article though and it goes into how silencers work.

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