Hearing Protection Act Garners Unlikely Allies

There’s no surprise that gun rights groups support the Hearing Protection Act. After all, it’s a pro-gun move that would benefit all of the gun community greatly, especially if combined with the SHORT Act.

The American Suppressor Association being in favor of it is both obvious in and of itself as well as falling into the category above. It’s kind of obvious they’d back such a measure.

But there are unlikely allies running around, and that’s something we should talk about.

A letter spearheaded by the American Suppressor Association and signed by Gun Owners of America, the NRA, Second Amendment Foundation, and numerous others urges Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R) to keep provisions in the budget reconciliation bill removing the National Firearms Act tax on suppressors and short-barreled rifles and shotguns.

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The National Hearing Conservation Association is also a signatory on the the letter, noting the health benefits target shooters and sportsmen garner from the use of suppressors:

Persons wearing conventional hearing protection are not without risk of NIHL [Noise Induced Hearing Loss] when using firearms. The noise reduction of hearing protection devices varies considerably across users and may provide significantly less protection from noise than the labeled noise reduction rating (NRR) suggests. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has recommended the NRR of conventional hearing protection be derated by 25% for earmuffs, 50% for formable earplugs, and 70% for all other earplugs to correspond to existing real-world data. NIOSH research has demonstrated that as many as 50% of persons using earplugs fail to achieve 25 dB of noise reduction for their earplugs. However, using conventional hearing protection in conjunction with a suppressor can significantly reduce the risk of NIHL more than using either device alone.

The Academy of Doctors of Audiology has also thrown their support behind provisions removing the NFA tax from suppressors.

This isn’t actually surprising, considering that suppressors are safety devices that help protect shooters’ hearing. They’re also pretty useful in protecting the hearing of others who happen to be in the vicinity for whatever reason.

Doctors backing this just makes a great deal of sense.

Of course, this won’t make the same headlines as a random doctor taking an anti-gun stance, but that’s neither here nor there. The truth is that the very experts who can and should have an opinion on protecting hearing back the Hearing Protection Act as being useful in protecting hearing. Yet, based on how doctors are portrayed in the media, it feels a little strange to see medical groups backing a gun rights bill.

In fact, it kind of negates a lot of the fear-mongering by anti-gun lawmakers who are trying to scuttle the measure. They don’t want us having anything, of course, so any step back from the status quo cannot be allowed by them. However, they don’t have the final say, and there’s a very good chance that these unlikely allies will get their way.

This is just another win in a fight I never expected to get here, but let’s not rest on our laurels. We still have fights we need to keep up to make this happen.