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ATF agents discussed new suppressors on site they thought was private

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ATF agents discussed new suppressors on site they thought was private

by Lee Williams 

Why do ATF agents need new suppressors for their ARs? No one was willing to answer this simple question, not the private company making the silencers and certainly not the ATF. 

However, ATF agents themselves were discussing the new silencers on a website they falsely believed was private. 

“We are getting new suppressors. They are currently being rolled out to the field,” one ATF agent wrote on the ATF Association Facebook page, which only allows current and former ATF personnel to join. 

Another commenter on the same page said the ATF’s new suppressors are made by HUXWRX Safety Co., and that they are “upper lever” and “good cans.” 

The new HUXWRX suppressors can cost from $1,200 to $1,300 a piece, according to the company’s website

The HUXWRX Safety Co. (formerly OSS Suppressors) did not want to talk either. Company staffers did not respond to messages left on their website, emails or messages left for their spokesperson. 

However, the ATF actually commented on-the-record, although it took a week for them to email one quote, and they didn’t say much. 

“We can confirm that suppressors were provided to qualifying agents in the Criminal Investigation Occupation Series 1811 for health and safety due to the extensive training and quarterly firearms qualifications they must complete. For operational purposes, ATF does not comment on specific firearms used nor the number of firearms held,” ATF’s Public Affairs Division said in an email. 

The ATF’s Criminal Investigation Occupation Series 1811 are agents “responsible for planning, conducting, and managing investigations related to alleged or suspected violations of federal criminal laws.” 

The ATF would not say how many agents received the suppressors or why they’re even needed. 

“For operational purposes, we cannot provide any additional details,” the ATF said in a follow-up email. 

Several years ago, the FBI Hostage Rescue Team contracted with HUXWRX Safety Co. for an unknown number of suppressors. 

The contract, worth $4.9 million, was touted as the “largest law enforcement suppressor contract to date.”

“I personally want to thank the FBI and Ballistics Research Facility for running the most comprehensive suppressor down select ever executed by the United States Government,” Rick Elder, CEO of the HUXWRX Safety Co., said in a press release. “The HUXWRX team is extremely proud to support the tip of the spear of Law Enforcement professionals within the United States of America.”

Takeaways

Heavily armed ATF personnel have created nothing but problems for the agency and especially the public. 

On March 19 of last year, ATF “operators” conducted an early morning raid of Bryan Malinowski’s home in West Little Rock. A gunfight ensued, which was directly caused by ATF’s poor choice of raid tactics. An ATF agent who has never been named shot Malinowski in the head with his carbine. Malinowski, a 53-year-old airport executive director with no prior criminal history, died of his wounds two days later. His family insists he didn’t know he was trading gunfire with federal agents. Instead, they say he thought he was defending himself and his wife from armed home invaders.

Other victims of ATF’s raids have said they and their families were extremely terrified and believed they would be killed. Ask Mark Manley, Russell Fincher, Peter Brennan, David Schieferle or Patrick “Tate” Adamiak if you want more information.  

Fortunately, the Trump Administration seems very aware of ATF’s problems, especially when it comes to its budget. Two White House sources recently told Reuters that ATFs proposed fiscal 2026 budget would be its lowest since 2016. Meanwhile, a growing group of elected officials are calling for the ATF to be eliminated completely. 

The ATF has proven it cannot be trusted to carry out its normal duties. Far too many of its members view themselves as a high-speed SWAT team, rather than mere federal agents. 

Hopefully, President Donald J. Trump will take away the ATF’s new suppressors, and it we’re lucky, their ARs and handguns will soon follow. 

The Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project wouldn’t be possible without you. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to support pro-gun stories like this.

34 thoughts on “ATF agents discussed new suppressors on site they thought was private”

  1. “For operational purposes, we cannot provide any additional details,” the ATF said in a follow-up email.

    Well perhaps the JBT will answer US Senators

    Reply
    • NE – I wouldn’t hold my breath on any CONgress critter at any level daring to ask the bats the pertinent questions for those details

      Reply
      • The mighty Trump (whom I absolutely voted for and would do so again in leu of our alternatives) didn’t have the cajones to appoint Branden Herrera to run the “AFT” so I’ve little hope that anything meaningful as far as change will be forthcoming.

        Reply
  2. I’d like to know why the ATF needs suppressors in the first place? Is it because they want to be more stealthy when they attack Americans? Or is it because they want to protect agents hearing? If it’s the latter, why can’t all Americans protect their hearing without having to jump through NFA hoops?

    Pass R. 404, The “Hearing Protection Act and R. 2395, The SHORT Act.

    Pick up the phone and call the House Ways and Means Committee at (202) 225-3625 and direct your message to the majority

    Reply
    • Greg,
      The ATF needs higher-end suppressors to help them hunt and eliminate our nation’s most imminent threat:
      The domesticated house dog.

      Reply
  3. During the Reagan administration a congressional report was done that recommended the dissolution of the ATF. The agents/employees were to be integrated into the FBI. However, since the FBI agents were mostly college graduates and the ATF were not, the FBI indicated they could not accept those agents into their agency. The report apparently died because congress could not figure out what to do with those government employees.(apparently fire them wasn’t on the table) The ATF went on to perform Ruby Ridge and Waco(80 mostly minority women and children killed). They received accommodations, awards, promotions, raises.

    Reply
  4. It sounds like the ATF is better at keeping secrets than the FBI, CIA, and the President’s own cabinet members.

    Reply
  5. Where was DOGE when you need them? What a joke they are/were. DOGE went to town on other depts/agencies. I thought they were after non-essential expenditures. What makes, currently, the ATF so special? Make note: Bondi is no friend of the 2nd amendment.
    Just a thought: why do we continue to use the descriptive term “silencers”? Suppressor sounds a little less threatening. I vote for mufflers or moderates. Give the Brits credit for muffler, or modererater, considering how “Karen” they about almost anything that can be used to protect oneself.

    Reply
  6. LOL all these excuses of why we the people need suppressors but when the ATF gets them ,,,,, ,,,,,,, what a bunch of hypocrites.
    My beef is our tax dollars buys all this shit and how come the military gathers up spent brass and crushes it to sale to recycling companies and make profit.
    That should go to some reloading company and make MY ammunition available to me, cheap.
    DOGE ehh, it’s not DOGE, Its Dodge like dodge the truth.
    I’m still waiting on the Rose colored world Trump promised.
    What a joke, Biden gives illegal immigrants $1000 to come to Notre America and Trump gives them $1000 to go back.
    Hi my name is Jack
    I made $2000 by swimming a river. You can to. Go to w w w .com @ GetSuntanNow#Brownup

    Reply
  7. Did HUXWRX knowingly sell to the ATF or just the federal government in general? If it is the former then they are forever off my list of vendors.

    Reply
    • About 3 years ago they were selected to supply the FBI Hostage Rescue Team. Government contracts are nothing new for them.

      When I was last considering getting a suppressor I ruled them out because there a number of better cans available.

      Reply
  8. While I don’t trust the ATF (or any government agency for that matter) and think it should be done away with, I find it hard to begrudge the agents themselves wanting to have a good suppressors on their rifles. It is probably cheaper to buy suppressors now than to pay for hearing disabilities for the rest of the agents lives.

    The more suppressors become “mainstream” the better the case for taking them off the NFA (or preferably doing away with it all together).

    Reply
  9. AFAIK there is no info on whether the bat that killed Mr. Malinowski used a suppressed weapon, to ‘protect’ his/her hearing of course. Nor have they given any reason for painting over his front door camera prior to them smashing down his front door unannounced…………..

    Reply
  10. Look into the history of why “silencers” were included in the NFA; answers the question of why government para military units want “silencers”.

    Reply
    • While the use of silencers by gangsters was minimal, they were included in the National Firearms Act…

      Interestingly, during the National Firearms Act’s passage through Congress, silencers were almost never mentioned during the debates or committee meetings. It is often said that they were included at the request of the Department of the Interior to prohibit poaching or as a personal preference of the Attorney General Homer S. Cummings; however, the true reason for their inclusion in the act remains unknown.

      You got anything else, Sam?

      Reply
      • The conversation in that regard, and probably what Sam is alluding to, is about the *high profile* murders committed with silencers during Prohibition.

        This resulted in state level bans on silencers.

        Congress added the silencer ban to the NFA as a nod to these state laws, and IIRC, kind of as a horse trade for removing handguns from the proposed bill when it was pointed out that there was no way the NFA would survive a court challenge if it applied to handguns.

        Reply
    • Your veiled allegations may cause much clutching of pearls.

      I, for one, hope they do so that we may point this out to all who are willing to look.

      A friend of mine, who’s a Sheriff’s Deputy, said to me relatively recently “You seem to be a lot less favorable towards law enforcement in general than you used to be”

      The resulting discussion left him rather uneasy, and for good reason.

      Reply
  11. Think of this as customer service.

    They don’t want you, your kids, dog or whatever to be dead AND have tinnitus.

    Reply
  12. Trump won’t take their suppressors or guns. You smokin’ something? Trump could care less for the 2nd Amendment. He only plays lip service to get the vote. When have you ever seen him do anything at all for the 2nd Amendment? Give me some good, clear examples. I can give you one thing he did opposing the 2A; he forged the Bump Stock ban.

    Reply
    • When Trump ordered the ATF to redefine bump stocks after that suspicious incident in Las Vegas, Congress was gearing up to pass a ban that would have been much harder to overturn. By ordering the ATF to unconstitutionally redefine bump stocks as machine guns, Trump both headed off a ban by Congress and set the ATF up to get slapped down. The result is that we have bump stocks again. Trump played the long game.

      Reply
  13. Better Question: Why do any clerks responsible for collecting taxes have weapons at all? Why do agencies that show up after the fact and provide useless tracing information on stolen firearms need weapons? They actually don’t, the flashy show is for PR and fund raising for their “important work”.

    Take their guns, armor and equipment down to the 75th Ranger Battalion and drop them off…so not only will people who know how to use them have them, but people who have no business having them won’t.

    Reply

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