Suppressors Seldom Used In Crime

posted on February 18, 2017
** When you buy products through the links on our site, we may earn a commission that supports NRA's mission to protect, preserve and defend the Second Amendment. **

While anti-gun advocates opposed to the Hearing Protection Act have made every attempt to muddy the waters by claiming that silencers are used by hit men and are common in other crimes, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) just released statistics showing suppressors (called silencers by some, even though they are not silent) are used in just a tiny fraction of crimes.

According to a report in the Washington Free Beacon, there are currently about 1.3 million firearm suppressors legally owned in the United States—up about 400,000 since last year. But ATF reports that the agency has only recommended prosecutions for 44 suppressor-related crimes per year over the past decade.

Do that math, and that’s about .003 percent of suppressors used in crimes each year. In truth, the Hearing Protection Act really is designed to protect the hearing of shooters and hunters. Now those opposing the measure have lost their favorite excuse—that deregulating suppressors will increase crime.

Latest

2_aff_feature_mainstreamtruth.jpg
2_aff_feature_mainstreamtruth.jpg

Part 3: How the Mainstream Media Lost Touch With America—Journalism’s Future

Given how turned off the public is, what is the future of the news media, and is there any chance market forces could make its treatment of this individual right fairer?

Virginia is Going After the Peoples’ Guns

As Virginia’s Democrat-controlled General Assembly and Senate move gun-control bills through committees, residents need to contact their representatives to let them know neither they, nor their guns, are to blame for crime.

Part 2: How the Mainstream Media Lost Touch With America—the Death of Local News

The demise of newspapers, small and large, has been well chronicled, but how this has impacted America’s most practical civil right, our right to keep and bear arms, has not often been considered.

 

The Armed Citizen® January 21, 2026

Around 7 a.m. on Nov. 7, 2025, near Los Angeles, a 79-year-old Vietnam War veteran heard his duplex tenant screaming. He found a naked 30-year-old man had forced his way into the woman’s home.

The DOJ Civil Rights Division is Hiring Second Amendment Attorneys

After Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division, was a guest on Gun Talk Media with Tom Gresham, NRA-ILA reported that Dhillon is “embracing a new style of litigation on behalf of the Second Amendment.”

Cynical Strategies To Subvert The Protection Of Lawful Commerce In Arms Act

Since President George W. Bush signed the bipartisan Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) into law on Oct. 26, 2005, those bent on civilian disarmament have sought to bypass the legislation’s clear commands. In fact, 20 years later, gunmakers were fending off a frivolous nuisance suit from the city of Gary, Ind., filed in 1999, despite the PLCAA and state-analogue legislation.



Get the best of America's 1st Freedom delivered to your inbox.