Media Contact: Georgia Seltzer, (202) 822-8200 x104, gseltzer@vpc.org
Campaign Research Notes – June 18, 2025
In this industry update: Efforts in Congress to de-regulate firearm silencers and a quick and easy call to action for how you can help fight them.
With the changes on Capitol Hill and in the White House, the gun lobby and firearms industry have renewed their efforts to de-regulate silencers – firearm accessories that when attached to the barrel of a gun greatly reduce the sound of the weapon when fired.
Since 1934, silencers have been tightly restricted under the National Firearms Act (the federal law that also tightly regulates machine guns and short-barreled rifles). But now, as part of the budget reconciliation bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last month (the wildly misnamed and Orwellian “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”), legislation is now pending in the U.S. Senate that under federal law would make silencers readily available.
The new VPC study Silencers: A Threat to Public Safety details the dangers posed by these military-bred devices and the clear risk they present to law enforcement, our public institutions, and the general public. The study details:
- The history of firearm silencers in the U.S., as well as examples of crimes involving them, including the December 2024 murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in downtown Manhattan.
- The militarized marketing of silencers in ads, publications, and catalogs and how silencers are viewed as a key tool to introduce young children to guns.
- Data on the dramatic increase in civilian silencer ownership.
Pushing way beyond the limits of credulity and hypocrisy, the gun industry argues with a straight face that deregulating silencers is a “public health” issue and that their efforts are merely about protecting the hearing of shooters.
Not surprisingly, they never mention their hidden agenda.
Deregulating silencers would allow for the creation of a new category of easily available firearm — guns with integral silencers — that the gun industry hopes will allow them to resell current gun owners while appealing to potential new customers.
The time is right now to let your U.S. Senators know that they should be protecting their constituents — not the gun industry’s financial interests. The bill’s supporters say they hope to have a Senate vote by the Fourth of July.
Call your U.S. Senators now through the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and tell them that you oppose the deregulation of firearm silencers contained in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Want to do more?
Send a letter to the editor (click here for a sample) of your local newspaper to spread the word about this dangerous gun industry giveaway that threatens all of us.
The Campaign for Gun Industry Accountability is an ongoing project of the Violence Policy Center.