Media Contact: Georgia Seltzer, (202) 822-8200 x104, gseltzer@vpc.org

Report Released as Firearms Industry and Gun Lobby Push Silencer De-Regulation on Capitol Hill

Pro-Gun Effort Would Allow Creation of New Category of Generally Available Firearms: Guns with Integral Silencers

Washington, D.C. — The Violence Policy Center (VPC) today released Silencers: A Threat to Public Safety, a new study detailing the public safety threat posed by firearm silencers. The study was released as part of the VPC’s ongoing Campaign for Gun Industry Accountability.

The study’s release comes as the firearms industry and gun lobby are pushing legislation on Capitol Hill to de-regulate silencers. Currently, silencers are regulated under the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA), the restrictive federal law that also covers machine guns and short-barreled rifles. The NFA is overseen by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

When attached to the barrel of a firearm, silencers reduce: the level of noise generated when the weapon is fired, muzzle flash, and recoil. In recent years, the gun industry has aggressively marketed silencers as a new profit center.

The study reveals that enactment of any of the bills being considered would allow the gun industry to manufacture firearms with integral silencers—creating a whole new class of firearm that could be marketed to the general public—with the goal of reselling current gun owners while hopefully appealing to potential new customers.

VPC Executive Director Josh Sugarmann states, “Silencer de-regulation efforts are the latest salvo in the gun industry’s increasing militarization of the civilian marketplace in search of increased profits. Allowing these military-bred accessories to be generally available will make it easier for criminals to take innocent lives, threaten police, and hamper the ability of law enforcement to respond to mass shootings or sniper attacks.”

Information presented in the study includes:

• A history of silencers in the United States as well as examples of crimes involving silencers (both legally and illegally possessed) including the December 2024 murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in downtown Manhattan.

• Examples of the militarized marketing of silencers in ads, publications, and catalogs and details on how silencers are viewed as a key tool to introduce children to guns.

• Data on the dramatic increase in civilian silencer ownership. In 2010 the number of legally registered silencers in the U.S. was 285,087. By 2024 this number had grown to 4,857,897—an increase of more than 1,600 percent. The dramatic increase seen in recent years has been fueled by silencer marketers and manufacturers overseeing the application process with ATF for purchasers and a shift by the agency in 2021 to allow application forms to be accepted online.

Although proponents of deregulating silencers assert that hearing protection is their goal, silencer manufacturers, such as Advanced Armament Corp., tout numerous other “benefits of silencer use”—usually with an anti-personnel or law enforcement application (often described as “tactical” use):

• “By virtually eliminating muzzle flash, silencers prevent ‘blooming’ of night vision equipment and help preserve unaided night vision.”

• “A silencer helps a shooter maintain command and control by enabling team members to communicate during live fire exercises or in combat.”

The “benefits” most commonly cited by silencer manufacturers, however, remain sound reduction and increased accuracy and rate of fire as the result of reduced recoil and improved stability of the weapon when firing.

In a civilian context, these “benefits” could help enable mass shooters and other murderers to kill a greater number of victims more efficiently. At the same time, they can limit the ability of law enforcement to respond effectively. After the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting in Las Vegas that left 58 victims dead and 489 injured, Las Vegas Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said that because the guns used in the attack weren’t silenced officers on the ground “could actually hear where the rounds were coming from,” and coordinated their response accordingly.

In its conclusion, the VPC report warns: “The explosion in the popularity of silencers has significantly increased the likelihood that they will be used in criminal acts…Any effort to decrease current federal regulations on this lethal firearm accessory can only further threaten public safety. This is especially true recognizing the fact that…deregulating silencers would allow for the creation of a new category of firearm—guns with integral silencers—with the goal of reselling current gun owners while hopefully appealing to potential new customers. Instead of considering a rollback on the controls currently placed on these military-bred accessories, Congress and states should be identifying ways to further limit their availability to the general public.”

The full report can be found at https://gunindustryaccountability.org/issue/silencers-a-threat-to-public-safety/.

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The Violence Policy Center is a national educational organization working to stop gun death and injury. Follow the VPC on X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BlueSky.