As you’d expect, as intended, SilencerCo’s Maxim 50 suppressed muzzleloader caused a kerfuffle this week. A gun with a silencer that doesn’t require ANY paperwork? One that can be MAILED to a buyer’s house, WITHOUT A BACKGROUND CHECK? Yup, pretty much. CNN reports that the Maxim 50 has the ATF’s blessing . . .
Silencers are subject to federal gun control laws that are more restrictive than for most guns. They are treated like machine guns, requiring a more intensive background check that takes months to process, with a $200 tax.
But muzzleloaders are not subject to federal gun control laws because they use antiquated firing mechanisms without modern ammunition, said Max Kingery, chief of the Firearms and Ammunition Technology Criminal Branch of the ATF. “Thus, there would be no federal restriction on the sale or distribution of this item,” he said.
SilencerCo provided CNNMoney with a letter from the ATF that greenlights the Maxim 50, saying that their silencer is not considered a silencer because it’s permanently attached to the muzzleloader, which is not considered a gun.
Nope. A muzzleloader is a ham sandwich. Wait. Then the FDA would get involved.
Anyway, California, Massachusetts and New Jersey balked at “allowing” sales of the Maxim 50, forcing the company to suspend sales in those slave states.
That’s according to SilencerCo. Before trotting out the obligatory Brady Campaign kvetch, CNN cast some doubt on CA, MA and NJ’s anti-ballistic blowback:
A company spokesperson was unable to specify who the claims were from. CNN reached out to the attorneys general for the three states. Massachusetts said it didn’t file any claims and New Jersey and California did not respond to CNN’s inquiry.
Well, if they didn’t take action against Americans exercising their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear a silencer-equipped muzzleloader, that would be news. And odds are they will. Watch this space.