The section of the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” deregulating suppressors from under the National Firearms Act (NFA) and doing away with the $200 tax stamp required to purchase them is allowing anti-gun Democrats in Congress to show their true colors.
Pro-gun Republicans managed to get original Hearing Protection Act (HPA) language into the massive budget bill, which is now under consideration in the U.S. Senate. This measure would eliminate the $200 NFA tax and the NFA’s application and registry requirements (the sole statutory purpose of which is to administer the tax) with respect to suppressors. If enacted into law in its current form, the bill would effectively leave suppressors to be regulated as ordinary “firearms” under the Gun Control Act of 1968.
Some Democrats are distressed that the tax might be eliminated. And U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pennsylvania, is finally saying what most won’t say out loud—the main reason for the tax is to discourage people from buying the devices.
“Since 1934, there has been a $200 tax on silencers, never adjusted for inflation” Dean said in a recent hearing of the House Rules Committee. “It’s been solid since 1934. You know what the dollars are? It’s $1.4 billion over 10 years. I did the math. That means something like 700,000 silencers are sold in this country a year. That baffles me. I don’t know if that’s accurate, but by the numbers and by the math, that’s what we’re talking about.”
Of course, Rep. Dean has an idea of how best to handle the tax scheme—namely, to double or even triple the tax! Dean pointed out that if adjusted for inflation, $200 in 1934 would be more like $4,700 to $4,800 today.
“If we doubled it, if we just went to $400, you could sell only half as many and not lose a penny in revenue,” she said. “If we tripled it, you might actually discourage some sales of silencers. Wouldn’t that be a good thing for us to be doing in this committee?”
Such a take on this important matter again solidifies who Republicans winning both the House and Senate last November was so important. Still, Democrats in both houses will do anything they can to make sure the suppressor language doesn’t make it into the reconciliation bill.
That’s why gun-rights groups like the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) are urging the U.S. Senate to make sure the suppressor language is in whatever final form the legislation takes.
“This measure marks an historic victory for Second Amendment advocates who have fought tirelessly to remove these vital hearing protection tools from the outdated and tyrannical constraints of the NFA,” the FPC said in a news release announcing House passage of the measure. “We strongly urge the U.S. Senate to preserve this critical language as they take up the bill.”
At least one Republican senator—U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas—is speaking out in favor of keeping the language as the Senate considers the bill.
“Firearm silencers should not be subject to overregulation and unconstitutional taxes that hamstring Texans’ freedoms and pocketbooks,”Sen. Cornyn said. “I’m proud to see the House stand up for law-abiding gun owners, eliminate senseless red tape, and proudly defend our Second Amendment rights, and I will continue to fight for this as the Senate works to pass President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.”
To: U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pennsylvania.
Don’t feed me no lines, and keep your hands to yourself.
She used to be a school teacher. I feel sorry for her students. She is an embarrassment to her district.
Does anyone have any industry or sales stats as to how many suppressors are sold each year?
I got this from guns.com
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, until 2020, detailed the number of NFA items such as suppressors and short-barreled rifles held on the agency’s National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record in the “Annual Firearms Commerce in the United States” report. In the past, this allowed media outlets like Guns.com to document the steady rise in suppressors in circulation, for instance from 900,000 in 2016 to 1.5 million in 2018.
However, the ATF stopped including the NFRTR numbers in the annual report starting in May 2021, in effect leaving the figures frozen in time at 2,664,774.
This changed following a Freedom of Information Act request from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the American firearms industry. The group’s FOIA request uncovered that 4,857,897 NFA-compliant suppressors were in circulation as of June 2024, a jump of 82 percent from the 2021 figure.
This averages to nearly 60,000 new suppressors added to the NFRTR every month for the past three years.
Wow, thanks.
I had no idea there were so many, but with the number of manufacturers and models out there it makes sense that they must be selling like hotcakes.
You:re believing it?
This article failed to mention the other reason why Democrats are gung-ho about suppressor taxes: it is a convenient way to punish their political enemies.
In other words suppressor taxes are a classic “two-fer”, meaning “two for the price of one”.
(The “price” of a single law–suppressor taxes–achieves two Democrat objectives: increasing government tax revenue for buying votes AND punishing their political enemies.)
Too add, whatever tax revenue they collect goes right back into thwarting our rights.
Through printing/inflation and taxation/confiscation we built our prisons and hired and armed our oppressors. Feelz gud.
Always. They live for that.
Organizations like the NRA and NSSF should have spearheaded the efforts to remove suppressors from the NFA. This should have happened DECADES AGO!
The NSSF exists to transfer the maximum amount of money from firearm enthusiasts to anti-2A politicans.
My definition of the NSSF is “Not Supporting Second Fudds.”
Removing them from the NFA is great, but they should not be regulated at all as they are not firearms.
Let ’em get away with calling a suppressor a firearm, and soon every other part and accessory but the frame will also require a 4473.
“At least one Republican senator—U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas—is speaking out in favor of keeping the language as the Senate considers the bill.”
Sorry senator RINO, too little and too late. Paxton will clean your clock.
i sure hope you are correct about Paxton.
I thought Ms.Dean was making a pun when she/her/it said “I’m baffled”. Guess not.
My butts been wiped! -Jotato 🤔
Haha!
Women currently in the U.S. House – 125 (94D, 31R) 28.7% of 435 seats.
If you observed that there seemed a lot of moronic broads in Congress. You were right.
Not so much more of them, but them being more moronic.