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On To The Senate

May 29, 2025 by 6 Comments

Now that the House of Representatives has approved the One Big Beautiful Act aka the budget reconciliation bill with the removal of suppressors from the National Firearms Act, it is time to move on to the Senate. As someone noted elsewhere, closed mouths never get fed.

Some will argue that we should not request the inclusion of the SHORT Act as well as other parts of the Hearing Protection Act. That is, we should take removal of suppressors from the National Firearms Act and leave it at that. I disagree. In any sort of bargaining – political or economic – it is customary to start from a position asking for everything you want and then some. If you end up getting more than you hoped for, that is a plus. If you end up getting what would satisfy you, then you’ve won. In this case, that would mean suppressors out of the National Firearms Act. Having SBRs and SBSs removed would be a plus.

I had a long conversation with Knox Williams who is the Executive Director of the American Suppressor Association. We discussed the issue raised by how laws are written in many states regarding suppressors and other NFA arms. For example, North Carolina classifies suppressors as “weapons of mass destruction.” If that is not a case of hyperbole I don’t know what is! However, we are allowed to have them if they are held in compliance with 26 U.S.C. Chapter 53, §§ 5801-5871. Section 3 of the Hearing Protection Act would provide that compliance. Knox said that given this section of the bill deals with the Internal Revenue Code that it should pass muster under the Byrd Rule. If the Senate Parliamentarian disagrees, then VP J.D. Vance as President of the Senate can overrule her. Knox also noted that the sponsor of the Hearing Protection Act in the Senate was Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) who chairs the Senate Finance Committee. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) who chairs the Senate Budget Committee has signed on to the bill as a co-sponsor.

The National Coalition of Gun Rights Groups has created both an open letter to Senators and a petition urging inclusion of the HPA and the SHORT Act in the final version of the budget reconciliation bill. We are asking that state level gun rights groups, gun clubs, hunting groups, and legislators sign on to the open letter. For groups signing on to the letter, we have automated the process unlike the House version where you had to email J. R. Hoell of the New Hampshire Firearms Coalition. We had over 100 groups and representatives sign on the House letter and we really should surpass that number.

In addition, individuals can sign on to the petition using the same link.

Use the link below to sign:

—-> Reform NFA Now! <——

HPA-Short Act letter 20250524 Senate version 20250528 10pmDownload

I would like to note two things before concluding. First, the anti-rights gun control industry and their minions in Congress are against this proposal. As I pointed out in their responses, they have resorted to lies, hyperbole, and fabrications. Second, this is an independent and organic effort that has arisen from the grass roots. It was neither conceived nor organized by any of the major gun rights groups. This is not meant as a criticism of those groups who, like us, have been in the fight to remove suppressors from the NFA. Instead, it is an affirmation that the pro-rights grass roots can come together as “We, the People” and demand change without being led from above unlike the other side.

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The Difference Between Us And Them

May 27, 2025 by 3 Comments

I had an email the other day from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Gun Violence Solutions. They were offering a “toolkit” on advocating for so-called “safe storage.” There were some things that just jumped out at me in their email.

While I am sure it was unintentional on their part, this email illustrated the stark differences between the Astroturf of the gun control industry and the actual grass roots of the pro-rights movement.

They have shareable social media graphics. We develop our own memes and graphics.

They have “pre-written social media posts” which I am sure they have run by focus groups. We, by contrast, write our own social media posts including tweets, blogs, and Instagram posts.

They have “talking points”. We speak our minds.

In terms of real-world solutions to protect kids, it is the gun rights movement that does the heavy lifting. Whether it is the NRA’s Eddie Eagle program for children, the NSSF’s Project Childsafe locks, or an independent group like Kids S.A.F.E. Foundation, it is us doing the training and providing the tools. We don’t have to rebadge Project Childsafe gun locks like gun control front groups.

If the gun control industry were actually serious about providing safe storage they would be pushing for tax credits for safes and lockboxes. Moreover, these tax credits for safes and lockboxes would have a fairly high annual cap of say $5,000 with the ability to rollover expenses from one year to the next. In other words, if you spent $6,000 on a safe and/or lockboxes this year, you would get a $5,000 credit this tax year and could rollover the extra $1,000 to the next tax year.

Frankly, economic solutions usually have a better outcome than the nagging one gets from the gun control industry.

You can see their whole “toolkit” below.

safe-storage-saves-lives-public-toolkitDownload
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The First Fallen

May 26, 2025 by 2 Comments

While Memorial Day was not officially observed until 1868 and was designed to honor the Union soldiers who died in the War Between the States, it has now evolved to honor all those who have died while fighting for our country.

In that spirit, let us honor the first eight who fell in battle. They were all killed by British regulars on April 19, 1775 on Lexington Green or nearby. Seven of the eight were members of Capt. John Parker’s company of militia while Asahel Porter had been captured earlier and was killed as he tried to escape.

  • Ensign Robert Munroe, Age 63
  • Jonathan Harrington, Jr., Age 31
  • Samuel Hadley, Age 28
  • Jonas Parker, Age 53
  • Caleb Harrington, Age 23
  • Isaac Muzzy, Age 31
  • John Brown, Age 24
  • Asahel Porter, Age 23

These farmers, tradesmen, and inn keepers faced what at the time was the strongest professional army in the world and did not flinch when it came time to take a stand.

So it is, 250 years later, on Memorial Day 2025 that we honor their sacrifice. For without their sacrifice on that April day we would have never become the United States of America.

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NRA Statement On One Big Beautiful Bill

May 22, 2025 by 3 Comments

This statement was released by the NRA on the passage of HR 1, “One, Big Beautiful Bill”, which included the removal of suppressors from the National Firearms Act.

This morning, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1, the budget reconciliation bill known as the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act, on a 215-214 vote. Included in the House’s reconciliation package was NRA-ILA’s number one legislative priority for the reconciliation fight – the full removal of suppressors from the National Firearms Act (NFA). This is a massive win for NRA members, law-abiding gun owners, and Second Amendment supporters in this country. The work continues, though, as the bill now heads over to the Senate for their consideration. Following the passage of H.R. 1 this morning, the NRA released the following statements from Doug and John:

“On behalf of the millions of NRA members, I thank Speaker Johnson and Republican House leadership for including a pro-gun victory in the One, Big, Beautiful Bill. Eliminating the onerous tax and regulations surrounding suppressor purchases would mark a significant and long-overdue reform. Despite the fearmongering from anti-gun activists, suppressors are important safety devices that protect the hearing health of gun owners and hunters. The NRA looks forward to working with the pro-gun majority in the U.S. Senate to see that this bill becomes law.” – Doug Hamlin, NRA EVP & CEO

“This morning, the U.S. House of Representatives passed President Trump’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill, which includes the complete removal of suppressors from the National Firearms Act (NFA). This represents a monumental victory for Second Amendment rights, eliminating burdensome regulations on the purchase of critical hearing protection devices. The NRA thanks the House members who supported this bill and urges its swift passage in the U.S. Senate.” – John Commerford, NRA-ILA Executive Director

We are grateful for all the NRA members who have been calling their members of Congress advocating for this change. NRA-ILA will keep you updated as the One, Big, Beautiful Bill continues through the legislative process.

One gentle reminder – it is not time to stop calling Congress and in particular your two US Senators. Tell them you want to have suppressors removed from the NFA. You might also say that it would be even better if they included the SHORT Act in the bill. You don’t get what you don’t ask for. The US Capitol switchboard number is (202) 224-3121. Ask to be connected to your Senator’s office.

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Prohibitionists Gotta Lie, Example 3

May 22, 2025 by

Brady United considers suppressors to be dangerous accessories. The American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery disagrees and has endorsed their use as an effective means of reducing hearing loss.

From Kris Brown, President of Brady United:

“It is outrageous that the Trump administration and its allies in the House have advanced a bill that simultaneously puts countless lives at risk and gives a ‘big, beautiful’ gift to gun industry executives and any mass shooter or assassin who intends to take lives. We do not need to speculate about how dangerous this will be: In 2019, a shooter armed with a silencer killed 12 people in Virginia Beach, and most of the victims were unaware that a mass shooting was even taking place. Americans will die if this becomes law, hard stop.

This provision would allow anyone to buy or even 3D print a silencer without registration or even a simple background check. This flies in the face of almost 100 years of sensible regulation of silencers that has saved lives. If House leaders want to legislate actual changes to gun policies, they should hold public hearings on bills and not sneak devious provisions into a massive tax giveaway in the dark of night. Brady fiercely condemns the House bill and urges the Senate to reject any effort to put gun industry profits above American lives.”

Americans will die if this becomes law? What would the gun control industry do without hyperbole?

Hold public hearings on bills? What do you call the marathon sessions of the House Ways and Means, House Budget, and House Rules Committees? I guess they weren’t awake when their pet legislator Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) railed on about silencers (starts at about 9:00 mark) and her desire to raise the tax exponentially. I consider that a public hearing even if you don’t.

Devious provisions? Given how public we on the pro-rights side have been about our advocacy for both the Hearing Protection Act and the SHORT Act, I hardly would call it devious. Devious implies that we went about this sneakily and that certainly is not the truth.

3D print a silencer? OMG! Why go to all that trouble when all you need to do is screw on the right sized oil filter.

The funny thing is that in countries that have the level of gun control that they desire for in the USA, you can pick up a silencer readily, cheaply, and without any government interference. Here is an example from the gun control paradise formerly known as Great Britain. Or in South Africa given how their president is making news by visiting the White House. I can assure you that transporting a firearm from one airport to another in South Africa is strictly controlled.

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Prohibitionists Gotta Lie, Example 2

May 22, 2025 by

Our next example of prohibitionists lying about suppressors comes from the Cult of Personality known as Giffords.

Silencers, also known as “suppressors,” obstruct law enforcement efforts to quickly and effectively respond to active shooters since they make it more difficult to recognize the sound of gunfire and locate the source of gunshots. They also mask muzzle flash and reduce recoil, increasing the risk of multiple-casualty shootings. A silencer was used in the 2019 Virginia Beach shooting that killed 12 people. It has also been reported that the shooters in the 2022 Tops Friendly Market massacre in Buffalo, New York, and the 2023 Lewiston, Maine, shooting that murdered 18 people, had tried to purchase silencers, but were denied. 

“Instead of focusing on the safety of American families, House Republicans just gave gun industry CEOs a $1.5 billion tax break to help boost their bottom line. Silencers will only enable shooters to cause more violence and damage without being detected. Law enforcement has opposed efforts to make silencers more accessible for a reason—they’re dangerous and make their jobs harder. For a party that claims to ‘back the blue,’ House Republicans just gave dangerous people a big win and ignored the impact to public safety,” said GIFFORDS Executive Director Emma Brown. 

As I noted in my previous post, 130 decibels is the average of a suppressed gun shot from a 9mm Glock. That is the same amount of sound of a F-18 taking off from a carrier deck. More difficult to recognize the sound of gunfire? I don’t think so.

Reducing recoil and muzzle flash increase the risk of mass-casualty events? Are you kidding me? That has to be one of the more ludicrous arguments made by the prohibitionists.

Insofar as law enforcement opposing efforts to deregulate suppressors, the very article used by Giffords says just the opposite. It points out that the then head of the Fraternal Order of Police didn’t consider it a law enforcement problem. Using 7-8 year old articles regarding LEOs and suppressors to try and make your point just fails.

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Prohibitionists Gotta Lie, Example 1

May 22, 2025 by

We expected the gun control industry to have a hissy fit if and when the House of Representatives voted to removed suppressors from the National Firearms Act. We were not disappointed.

From Everytown:

“There’s a reason silencers have been regulated for nearly a century: They make it much harder for law enforcement and bystanders to react quickly to gunshots,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “In the name of gun industry profits, House Republicans are putting law enforcement and our communities at greater risk of being shot — all while gutting health care for millions of Americans.”

A silencer is a device that helps dampen a firearm’s sound signature and eliminate its muzzle flash by allowing the hot gasses that follow a bullet down the barrel to expand and cool before hitting the air outside of the gun. Silencers work like car mufflers, but for firearms. As a result, it is more difficult for bystanders and police to identify that a gun has been fired or where gunshots originate.

Because of the danger they pose, silencers have been highly regulated since 1934. People who want to buy or build a silencer must first submit an application to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) with their fingerprints, a passport-style photo, and a $200 tax stamp — a fee that has not been raised or adjusted for inflation since 1934 — and undergo an enhanced background check. All of these requirements are now on the chopping block.

Suppressors reduce the report of a firearm by approximately 30 decibels. What does that mean in real terms. The chart below illustrates the decibel level of a suppressed and unsuppressed firearm.

The OSHA occupational noise standard for workers exposed to loud noises is 90 decibels average over an 8-hour work day.

As to the lie that police and bystanders would have a hard time identifying gun shots if a suppressed firearm was used, 130 decibels – or the approximate amount of a 9mm suppressed – is the sound level of a military jet taking off from a carrier deck and can cause harm to one’s hearing.

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“You Can’t Always Get What You Want”

May 22, 2025 by 1 Comment

As Mick Jagger famously sung in the Rolling Stones’ classic hit:

No, you can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometime you’ll find
You get what you need

The House of Representatives passed One Big, Beautiful Bill aka the budget reconciliation bill very early this morning. It passed 215-214 with 2 Republicans voting no and 1 voting present. Included in the bill was a provision that removed suppressors from the National Firearms Act.

We wanted to get both the Hearing Protection Act and the SHORT Act in the final bill as sent to the Senate. We only got the Hearing Protection Act provision which removed suppressors from the National Firearms Act.

Is this a loss?

The answer is an unequivocal no.

As any trader in a Third-World market would tell you, the bidding process begins by asking for more than you reasonably think you can get. By asking for both the HPA and the SHORT Act it gave us room to bargain. While we wanted both, getting suppressors removed from the National Firearms Act is much better than what the Ways and Means Committee was offering which was a reduction of the tax to zero but with suppressors remaining registered in the NFA. In my opinion, if we had started the negotiations with only asking for the Hearing Protection Act then we probably would have only gotten the reduction in tax.

Thanks to a post by the American Suppressor Association, here is the final wording that the House voted to approve.

This now goes to the Senate where we must fight to keep this provision in the bill. It, of course, has riled up the gun control industry but that was to be expected.

Provided this passes the Senate and suppressors are removed from the NFA in their entirety I expect to see an explosion in the sales of suppressors as well as court battles in those states like Illinois, New York, and California that ban suppressors. I look forward to the latter as it is hard to argue against something that reduces overall noise pollution and is backed as a health safety device by the medical community.

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Who Has A Committee Meeting At 1am?

May 21, 2025 by 4 Comments

The quick answer to the headline is the House Rules Committee. They are scheduled to meet to discuss the budget reconciliation bill aka A Big, Beautiful Bill at 1am Eastern on Wednesday morning.

And here I have thought the House Budget Committee reconvening their markup meeting on the budget reconciliation bill at 10pm Sunday night was a bit unusual.

If you are awake and want to watch the sausage being – I mean legislation considered – there will be video.

Will Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC-5) listen to gun rights groups and include the portions of the Hearing Protection Act and the SHORT Act as requested? She has been pro-2A in the past so there is some, if slim, hope. It is interesting to note that Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) is a member of the committee as he has been supportive of both measures.

In a tweet on X from Erich Pratt of Gun Owners of America which featured a video of an interview with Mr. Roy, it was noted that a lot of progress had been made on suppressors and they are still working of SBRs and SBSs.

I guess we may know tomorrow morning when we get up to have our morning coffee.

While it appears that many state level groups and others such as GOA are going for the whole enchilada, i.e., SBRs, SBS, AND suppressors, it appears the NRA has given up on anything more than suppressors. This is from my reading of an alert sent out on Monday urging people to call representatives to push for the inclusion of suppressors in the bill. In my opinion – and it is only my opinion – this is a mistake as a win on the whole lot would galvanize the grass roots and mark the NRA as hard-core supporters of gun rights.

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An Open Letter To Reform NFA (Updated)

May 18, 2025 by 6 Comments

A number of state-level Second Amendment groups along with a few individuals have signed an open letter to Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) of the House Budget Committee and Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC). The letter demands the inclusion of portions of both the Hearing Protection Act (HR 404) and the SHORT Act (HR 2395) into the budget reconciliation bill.

The signatories represent constituencies from coast to coast and North to South. I expect more groups to sign on to this letter as the evening progresses. I find it remarkable that this many groups can come together to sign this letter in little more than a day and a half.

If you represent an organization that ought to be a signatory to this letter, you can contact Rep. J. R. Hoell of New Hampshire at RepJRHoell@gmail.com to add your name and organization.

The updated letter in its entirety is below:

HPA-Short Act letter 20250519 8pmDownload

The letter has been updated to add elected officials to the list. Signatories are still being added and it is not too late to add your name to the list.

As someone commented on Reddit, “Closed mouths never get fed.” Meaning if we don’t ask or demand it, we will never get either the SHORT Act or the HPA. We may not get all we want but we would get nothing if we didn’t ask for it.