“I don’t think (suppressors are) necessary for home protection and I don’t think they’re necessary for hunting.” – Augusta, Maine chief of police Robert Gregoire in Gun industry works to rebrand silencers as hearing-protection accessories [at theguardian.com]
Good thing his opinion is irrelevant then.
Spoken like someone who has never fired a gun indoors. Just another urban cop who thinks his badge doubles as a crown
Looking, I like it! +1
Apparently this guy thinks being a cop makes him a medical expert in the field of Audiology. He is totally unqualified to give medical advice on hearing protection.
Sadly as the new law is to be looked at and possibly repealed in 2018. His opinion may end up carrying some weight.
The guy has refused to approve any permits in the past, now that he’s forced to I can see him doing everything he can to cause issues. Lots of “lost in the mails”, waiting until after hunting seasons to sign off, interpreting things that wouldn’t prohibit someone from being approved as otherwise etc etc.
Starting in July he doesn’t have to sign off on any silencers at all (well, he may according to state law, but it isn’t a requirement of the ATF after that); he just needs to be informed.
Thank goodness we live in a country where people are only allowed things that are necessary.
Wouldn’t want the peasants to get uppity.
Yup. Make suppressors essentially illegal and then complain about the noise from the local gun range.
That’s a feature not a bug.
Have you heard if our Senate has passed our current edition yet?
If you’re referring to the IA senate, no.
“Thank goodness we live in a country” could be extrapolated with
“There was a time when men who suggested limiting liberties were slaughtered by men of principle. The earth was watered with their blood until they found easier outlets for their evil applications. This was good, and this was necessary. If I apply my efforts, my life can be better than that of 99% of the world’s people. If these animals were not killed, my life would not be this way. This life will not be possible for my children and descendants without similar sacrifices, and that time is fast approaching.”
Liberties do not persist without constant vigilance, and blood. Blood of tyrants, and blood of patriots necessary to get close to those tyrants. The old joke is that “The people might get the government they deserve, but I don’t deserve their government. Au contraire, I deserve the government that I will allow to exist on this earth at the same time that I do. The French Resistance understood that. Men of principle understand that.
People of Maine, this guy is your problem, not mine, yet. I suggest you do something about him because he will stick a knife in your back as soon as he gets the chance.
“There was a time when men who suggested limiting liberties were slaughtered by men of principle…”
Your quote or someone else’s? (It is in quotes so I am not sure.) I don’t recognize it, but I like it.
“…I don’t think”
Yes. That is readily apparent.
Beat me to it.
Hah!
Thanks for the laugh to start my day!
My thought was “he could have stopped after word 3”.
I don’t think police chiefs are necessary.
But how will the Emperor maintain controll without the bureaucracy?
Fear! Fear will keep the local systems in line.
Especially chiefs in wheel chairs.
He is physically unqualified to perform the duties of a police officer. He should be fired.
Sorry to sound harsh, but that’s reality.
Actually he can eat donuts quite well, write parking citations and fill out paperwork… I think he’s pretty qualified (ducks to avoid a hurled donut)
Like a cop would ever throw a donut anywhere except in their mouth…
I don’t think wheel chairs are necessary either.
Nor is agriculture.
Even better, he wasn’t even injured in the line of duty. He dumped his bike and broke his back.
As a chief, he probably is a pure desk jockey. A patrolman needs to be able to run (except in Quahog, RI) and climb. A chief, not so much.
Yeah, and I don’t think police officers need radios, handcuffs, nor firearms to do their jobs.
Where in the world does this idea come from where some person’s notion of what I “need” is a righteous justification for government to infringe on my rights?!?!?!?
90% of the products we use daily aren’t “necessary”. I will argue that, for hearing protection, we can use ear plugs or muffs, sure. However, for surrounding homes, other hunters and the shooter, a suppressor is much less invasive. And for the hunter himself, wearing earplugs while trying to listen for that trophy buck sneaking up behind you is not an option.
I believe they should be not only legal for home defense, but heavily encouraged. Why? Anyone who’s ever fired a gun off inside a house without ear pro can attest to just how unpleasant (and somewhat painful) it is and how little you can hear afterward.
As a LEO, this idiot should be well aware of this.
So keeping our hearing is not necessary? Gotcha.
I don’t think mufflers on cars are necessary.
Hell, for police, I don’t think *cars* are necessary!
I don’t think noise ordinances are necessary.
Wow, this shows me his training is inadequate. He has swallowed the Hollywood myth that “silencers” are silent.
Flock him, another wannabe tyrant.
The dude is correct. They are not necessary.
But they are a damn good idea!
Then he was asked another question th which he replied “What? I couldn’t hear you. Got this constant ringing in my ears.”
That would assume he actually practices with firearms. He’s a police chief, which is political appointment that rarely involves the need to be familiar with firearms of any kind, other than to decry their ownership by the unwashed masses.
I’ve found when a cop doesn’t believe a thing is necessary he tends to make up the law as he goes against that thing and lets the courts and lawyers sort it all out while your life stops or crumbles as you await clarity.
At least this one is openly biased rather than secretively as so many are.
Silencers ARE hearing-protection accessories Gregoire.
If we take a look at the rest of the world, roughly 90% of what the average American owns is unnecessary. Luckily we don’t have to bow to what others see as necessary.
Necessary? Perhaps not.
But it’s the Bill of RIGHTS, not the Bill of Needs. And a muffler for a firearm is hardly dangerous to the public, so let’s just abolish them from the NFA
(Would love to see the whole thing go away, but incrementalism)
(D)heads of the world, and all others anti-gun.
N E W S
F L A S H
If something is necessary (handy, or even just used) to defend America, then it is necessary to protect Americans FROM America, whenever America is attempted to be run by dictatorial a-holes.
If you are liberal/progressive/communist YOU HAVE ZERO SAY IN THE MATTER AS YOU HAVE ZERO HISTORY OF ANYTHING OTHER THAN DEALING IN BAD FAITH. We’ve already wasted the blood, sweat, lives, and treasure of enough of our citizens trying to defend against your evil sh_t.
FU
as someone who lives in maine i can tell you that all of the police chiefs are compromised when it comes to individual liberty
they all bow down to their federal masters
Firing a gun at an indoor range, I can certainly say that I would prefer a suppressed firearm for a defensive situation. Not required but certainly a nice capability gain.
Is it so unreasonable that I should be able to shoot an intruder without blowing my eardrums out in the process???
Decibel levels are always higher in a confined space. This police chief should try firing a shotgun in a 400 square foot room, without earplugs, and see if he can still hear. Maybe he’s as dumb as Alison Lundergen Grimes, who posed with a rifle during a senate race, without hearing protection as she aimed it at her target.
Also, any criminal can easily make one. A silencer is nothing more than a series of orifice plates. Each one causes the gas pressure to drop until there is not much left at the end of the suppressor (much of that energy is converted to heat, which is why suppressors get so hot so quickly).
The point is, suppressor registration just creates a pain in the backside for law abiding citizens (especially if they fail to register one and end up in club Fed). Any criminal who wants to commit a covert assassination can use a crossbow or make a suppressor illegally. If they’re committing murder anyway they might as well go for broke.
My whole life would have gone differently if I hadn’t lost almost all of my hearing to the sweet lullaby of gunfire. I love how it all turned out in the end but I could have had my cake and eaten it too if suppressors were not unobtanium in my state.
A gun is not necessary to hunt but that is beside the point. My state is a legal silencer hunting state but the same state has not made it a requirement for CLEO’s to sign off on NFA paperwork even though this is a shall issue CCW state. This is the same state that said their DMV would provide at no cost a picture ID to those wanting one but not having a DL (for voting purposes). Some county DMV’s are refusing to make the ID’s even though they are staffed and paid for by the state. But I digress…
Well I don’t think luxury sedans are necessary. Or marble countertops, or the eating of caviar. People can drive a Prius, put their plates on tile countertops, and eat fish sticks.
Laws on possession of products should not be based on “necessity.”
That’s funny cause I don’t think YOU’RE necessary.
Since when do free people have to justify a need for something? ANYTHING?!!
There must be a compelling reason to prohibit people from owning and using something.
Illinois NRA lobbyist Todd Vandermyde had his pet hick Rep. Brandon Phelps sponsor a suppressor bill in 2015. That’s kind of strange, since Illinois has one of the WORST carry bills in America, and Vandermyde wrote most of it for Phelps. Their goal was simple: take everything the anti-gun police unions wanted that could deny citizens their Constitutional rights and get people hurt, then put it in the “NRA backed’ HB183 carry bill.
1) an UNELECTED Star Chamber licensing review board composed of a retired federal judge, three federal agents, a few lawyers, and a shrink. Police accusations are ANONYMOUS and the applicant cannot face his accusers in court. “Standard of evidence” for cops to deny your license? “Preponderance of the evidence,” the same “standard” as red light camera violations. Illinois does NOT have a shall issue bill.
What’s NRA doing about that? NOTHING.
2) Criminal penalties of 6 MONTHS or 1 YEAR in jail for hundreds of gun-free zones. Soccer mom sees you print in the Starbucks, freaks out and calls police, “man with a gun” call goes out, cops escalate, and SWAT team shows up. Since it’s arrestable, cops can use deadly force. You can’t stop the cops from seizing your gun, that got snuck into the bill under the Duty to Inform. Thanks Todd!
What’s NRA doing about criminal penalties and DTI? NOTHING.
If Vandermyde and Phelps have such a tough time in Illinois passing a decent carry bill, maybe they should concentrate on really improving their garbage bill by taking out the stuff that gives cops an incentive to arrest and kill armed citizens, like criminal penalties and Duty to Inform, instead of trying to legalize suppressors.
Not to be insensitive, but is his wheelchair a nice motorized one?
I don’t understand why it is all that necessary to allow these types of wheelchairs that require recharging every night with electricity that was produced by coal or something else destructive to our environment. I would prefer he use a normal, hand powered wheelchair.
And those powered types are much more expensive, who paid for his? Sounds like an unnecessary expense for the department, when they could fire this jerk and hire someone with sense AND mobility.
Is his job necessary? Or his wheel chair?
“rebrand”?
No, that was exactly their original purpose.
Exactly the same as car mufflers, and developed by the same family for the same purpose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppressor
Yea but there are considerably more scary hitman movies that silent stealthy killer car movies. Now seeing as it seems an awful lot of the powers that be learn everything they know about firearms from Hollywood this is what happens.
I think the rebrand is more the use of the suppressor over the original “scary” silencer title.
It’s so tiring…and insulting, hearing these people tell us what we need. Who asked them?
In the words of the late, great Patches O’Houlihan: “Necessary? Is it necessary for me to drink my own urine? No, but I do it anyway because it’s sterile, and I like the taste.”
He was also quoted as saying “Hey little boy. Want to take a ride in my wheelchair?”
Police are unnecessary. We already have the Sheriff’s department. That’s my Blue Force quote of the day.
Another thing. Can we sell Maine to Canada?
You are an agent of the state.
You don’t get to have an opinion on anything. Your job is to think, say, and do whatever the body politic that elected you tells you to think, say, and do. But, apparently, you’ve forgotten that.
Nah, I think police chiefs are appointed, could never win an election.