National concealed-carry reciprocity and easier access to suppressors are two initiatives that have a new lease on life as the 116th Congress opened.
U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., reintroduced the carry bill early this session “Concealed carry reciprocity is already well-established across our country with the average state recognizing permits for more than 30 other states,” he said in a press release. “National concealed carry reciprocity is common sense, and I’ll continue to lead the efforts to make it a reality.”
The bill was previously introduced in 2017, and it passed the House by a 231-198 vote.
His colleague, Rep. Jeff Duncan, similarly refiled the Hearing Protection Act as the new Congress opened the current session. The main thrust of the legislation is to remove suppressors from the National Firearms Act (NFA), thus making it easier for law-abiding sportsmen to protect their hearing on the range or on the hunt.
“Personally, I have experienced hearing damage from firearm noise, and I believe easier access to suppressors may have prevented much of this damage from early on in my life,” Duncan, a South Carolina Republican, said.
The bill was first introduced in 2015 and this is the first time it has come before a Democrat-controlled House.
“Regardless of who holds power in D.C., the American Suppressor Association (ASA) believes that citizens should not have to pay a tax to protect their hearing while exercising their Second Amendment rights,” said Knox Williams, president and executive director of the ASA.
The HPA has been unjustly controversial, mostly because the liberal elites in Hollywood have long mistakenly portrayed suppressors as “silencers”—or devices that make a gunshot inaudible. This is simply untrue. Suppressors merely reduce enough of the volume that the sound is less likely to damage eardrums. But anti-gunners are so caught up in their crusade they’re willing to swallow whatever line Hollywood feeds them.
