Safari Club International Joins Opposition to NJ Suppressor Ban

Hollywood perpetuates a lot of terrible ideas. People, for example, think the medieval period was dull and colorless, which is the exact opposite of reality. Just look at the illustrations of tournaments when you get a chance. It’s a riot of color. That misunderstanding just annoys medieval history buffs like me. The blatant misrepresentation of what suppressors actually do and are actually used for, however, is another matter.

New Jersey banned them, as have some other states. They seem not to see them as safety devices, but as the tool of assassins in a James Bond movie.

They’re not.

And while gun rights groups are standing in opposition to the ban, they just got the echoed support of another big voice.

Safari Club International (SCI) proudly joined prominent Second Amendment rights organizations in seeking summary judgment in their lawsuit challenging New Jersey’s suppressor ban.

Last year, SCI and its coalition partners sued the State, alleging that the ban violates the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by prohibiting the possession of arms in common use among Americans. There are over 6 million suppressors registered in the United States, to assist lawful gun owners and hunters in protecting their hearing.

Today’s filing argues that a firearm suppressor must be viewed as a part of a firearm and therefore protected under the Second Amendment. Limiting the use of this piece of equipment restricts access to that constitutionally protected right. Moreover, prohibiting one component of a firearm opens the door for banning firearms piecemeal, a slippery slope wherein firearms could be eventually outlawed one part at a time.

“The constitutional right to bear arms is inseparable from the right to hunt,” said SCI CEO W. Laird Hamberlin. “Allowing the government to ban one component of a firearm puts the equipment hunters rely on and the tradition itself in jeopardy. SCI is proud to join with these prominent organizations to defend the Second Amendment and, with it, hunters across the nation.”

The SCI Center for Conservation Law and Education is supporting this litigation on behalf of hunters in New Jersey (and around the country) who wish to use suppressors for hunting to reduce gunshot noise.

Honestly, this makes perfect sense. When you’re out hunting, ear protection is probably not something you want to deal with most of the time. While active hearing protection might help in the woods, allowing you to shut out a gunshot while not interfering with your ability to hear the game approach — or the squirrels that seem to always like to play around my deer stands — anything that runs on batteries can die on you in the field. Suppressors are different, and they can make it so you hear the game and keep your hearing after pulling the trigger on it.

Again, suppressors are safety devices, and they don’t kill all the sound of a gunshot. They just make it more tolerable. Some don’t even let you get away without ear protection when firing, though it’s a little better for people standing a bit away who might not have ear muffs on.

While the Second Amendment has nothing to say about hunting, it’s important to remember that a lot of Americans don’t really understand that. They don’t comprehend that hunting, while a key part of American culture, is not why the Second Amendment exists. 

SCI being part of this fight is important because they can make the case that suppressors are part of the right to hunt, and why it’s a part of that right. While it shouldn’t matter, the reality is that it does, and it’s good to have as many arrows in our quiver when addressing the American people on this topic.

After this, we need to get it so I can order a suppressor online and have it delivered to my house without any licensing or anything else beyond an address and a valid card number.

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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