As a (legal) gun owner, I’ve gotten used to seeing our wins in our fight against gun control to come through the court system. Sure, some judges are simply activists and would-be legislators masquerading as judges, but some judges take their jobs and their oaths of office seriously.
God bless them. We could use more of that latter type of judge in the court system.
Because most of wins for gun owners have come through the court system, it was a pleasant surprise to see a win coming through some other branch of government.
This time it’s coming through the legislative branch. Arjun Singh writes,
Currently, suppressors[, which some people refer to as “silencers” even though they aren’t completely silent,] are regulated by the federal government through the Tax Code. In order to purchase one, a customer has to submit an application to the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and pay a $200 transfer tax. Gun industry groups have long criticized this law, which they say does nothing to reduce gun crime.
In the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by the House on May 22, an amendment was included to reduce the transfer tax on suppressors to $0. The reduction was demanded by many gun industry groups as well as audiologists, citing the hearing protection afforded.
This is great news. After all, anyone who knows anything about suppressors knows that they don’t turn a gun into some kind of “assassin’s sniper rifle” like they are portrayed in many movies.
That portrayal in movies isn’t anywhere close to reality.
So, if this tax elimination is kept in the bill that is eventually signed into law, it will simply allow gun owners to better protect their hearing along with making outdoor shooting ranges less intrusive on the lives of those living near those ranges.
And those are good things.
