ATF’s Comments On Suppressors Sets Off Firestorm

A few days ago, I wrote about the ATF’s new suppressors. They’re getting a bunch, and they’re thrilled to have them. I kind of get it.

However, the reason the ATF gave is a bit of a problem for me. They said it was for the “health and safety” of ATF agents training with firearms.

At the time, I wrote:

Now, it’s possible that they need these to protect agents’ hearing as they train. Of course, if they need them for a purpose like that, then why is it such a pain in the posterior for regular folks to get one, too? As it is, we have to file NFA paperwork and get permission to have a suppressor of our own, but our tax dollars are going toward buying them from the least useful federal law enforcement agency on the planet, and no one can really tell us why?

To say I was a bit miffed is to put it mildly.

Unsurprisingly, I was far from alone.

The ATF admitted it issues $1,300 rifle suppressors for the “health and safety” of its law enforcement agents, “due to the extensive training and quarterly firearms qualifications they must complete,” according to our story published Wednesday.

But those three words chosen by the ATF—health and safety—set off a bomb among readers, and rightly so, because of how those of us who aren’t ATF agents are treated if we want to protect our own health and safety.

Why do law-abiding Americans have to pay $200, submit a federal application, and jump through a series of legal hoops just to purchase a single silencer? Besides, most of us shoot a lot more than at quarterly firearms qualifications, so our hearing is at serious risk.

One reader pointed out that suppressors are safety devices for the ATF but are considered a privilege for those of us who aren’t ATF agents. Unfortunately, he is 100% correct. The ATF is completely wrong in its reasoning.

We can all agree that suppressors offer a tremendous boon to health and safety, but shouldn’t civilians receive the same benefits as our lowliest federal agents? We should be able to purchase them anywhere, anytime we want, without any federal forms, waiting periods or especially $200 fees.

These are most definitely safety devices. That’s why they were created and what they’re largely used for. It’s why so many of us want them, even though maybe I’m talking mostly about myself here.

Suppressors aren’t nearly as hard to get as a machine gun, true, but they’re still a pain in the posterior to obtain because of the NFA regulations on the books. Even if you’re willing to brave them, you’ve got to hope the ATF doesn’t drag its feet granting you permission to buy something I should be able to order off of Amazon.

I want one to protect my hearing. I’d love to put one on a personal defense weapon or a lightweight carbine for home defense so that, God forbid, someone comes into my home and I have to shoot, it doesn’t make my family deaf. Or maybe my handgun. I’d love to take one to the range so that even if someone doesn’t have their hearing protection on at the wrong moment, it doesn’t give them tinnitus. There are a lot of ways it would benefit me and millions of others.

And the ATF knows this, apparently, which is why they want it for their agents.

Meanwhile, though, the rest of us are like little Oliver, holding up our bowl, saying, “Please, sir. I want some more.”

The only difference is that we’re having to do that with firsts, not seconds.