Senator Menendez [Scumbag-NJ] has filed a bill titled “Help Empower Americans to Respond (HEAR) Act” (no bill number yet) to ban silencers* (except for law enforcement and military, of course). Because with a silencers, victims can’t “HEAR” perps coming. There’s a matching companion bill in the House.
It’s fairly standard “ban” language, without grandfathering. Owners would have 60 days from the bill’s enactment to get rid of their property. Grants would be made to fund “buy backs.”
To show why this idiotic ban is “needed” Menendez cites five cases, over twelve years, in which “silencers have [allegedly] been used in gun violence related incidents over the last decade.” Let’s take a look at his examples, and see why I added “allegedly.”
1. In Monterey Park, California, on January 21, 2023, an armed assailant with a semi-automatic weapon modified with a homemade suppressor killed 11 people and injured nine others.
He used an illegal, homemade suppressor on a banned “California assault weapon.” his MAC-style firearm (law enforcement have identified it as both a MAC and a Cobray) has long been banned in the state, as have silencers. No doubt another redundant ban would have persuaded him to find another way to kill his victims. Oh, yes; and he had a second non-silenced gun.
2. In Virginia Beach, Virginia, on May 31, 2019, a gunman armed with a .45-caliber handgun fitted with a suppressor killed 12 people in a government building. One individual who survived the shooting reported hearing what sounded like a nail gun.
People in the building did hear the shots. And he used two handguns; only one of which was silenced.
3. In Jacksonville, Florida, in December 2017, police arrested a man for planning to “shoot up” an Islamic Center. He was charged with possessing a silencer not registered to him that he purchased from an undercover detective.
He did not use a silencer in an act of “gun violence.” He possessed one that he bought unlawfully (from a cop)
4. In Southern California, in February 2013, a former Los Angeles police officer killed four people, and wounded three others over the course of nine days. As police investigated, they wondered why nearby residents were not reporting the shots. It turned out that, in an effort to conceal his murders, the shooter was using a silencer, which distorts the sound of gunfire and masks the muzzle flash of a gun.
Again, California; silencers were already banned, It didn’t deter him. And so long as Menendez id bringing up Christopher Dorner’s little rampage, how ’bout mentioning the civilians the police mistakenly shot up?
5. In Toledo, Ohio, in January 2011, a man fatally shot his coworker as he sat eating his breakfast in his office. No one at the office heard the gunshot and the victim’s co-workers originally assumed he had died of a heart attack. Police later surmised that the killer had used a silencer.
The description of this one was vague enough that it took me a few minutes to find the case. The authorities only speculated that he used a silencer, but were never able to establish that as a fact.
Twelve years. Five cases. Two cases where silencers were already banned, two cases where silencers apparently were used. That leaves… counting on fingers… one case where a ban theoretically might have helped, assuming the murderous perp was worried about the extra silencer charge. If laws against murder didn’t stop, why would laws against silencers do it?
I love this pair of quotes from Violence Policy Center and Newtown Action Alliance toadies in support of the bill.
“Manufacturers brag that silencers can make guns ‘whisper quiet’ while increasing shooters’ accuracy and ability to fire rounds more quickly. These characteristics only make silencers more attractive to mass shooters and terrorists.”
“Silencers are dangerous weapons that make it easier for criminals to kill innocent Americans and more difficult for our police officers to protect our children and families. It’s time for Congress to pass this lifesaving legislation.”
So silencers are only attractive to mass shooter and terrorists, to kill innocent Americans…
Then why the hell does this bill exempt law enforcement and military from the ban? Are they mass shooters and terrorists bent on murdering innocents. And do you want them to do that?
* Yes, I think “suppressor” is a more accurate term, but federal law calls them “silencers,” so I’m kind stuck with it when discussing law.
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Could Mr. Menendez opine on European laws regarding suppressors?
Two thoughts:
First, Christopher Dorner was a (former) police officer, and therefore was exempt from Menendez’s proposed ban. Tell me how a ban will protect the public from a violent criminal explicitly exempted from the ban.
Second, as WiscoDave points out, European nations — most of which have restrictive gun laws the prohibitionists here can only dream of — often mandate the use of silencers during hunting and target shooting. Using Menendez’s logic, European countries are mandating mass killings and terrorism from those licensed, background-checked, fingerprinted, character-referenced, tax- and fee-paying citizens with their government-inspected-and-registered guns while hunting rabbits in the woods, huh?
“First, Christopher Dorner was a (former) police officer, and therefore was exempt from Menendez’s proposed ban.”
No, I see nothing in the bill that exempts former officers who were fired years before the shootings.
The Menendez bill exempts current law enforcement, on or off duty.
Menendez is from NJ where even compensators make everything more deadly. No way in Hell can the make it whisper Quiet unless it is a suppressed .22 using sub-sonic ammo.
I propose that if such a bill hits a subcommittee that the Republicans force a demonstration, in which a neutral 3rd party takes the same gun(s), maybe a handgun or two, and a rifle or two, and shoots them both with a suppressor/silencer and without. Then gives the data to the subcommittee along with a demonstration of the sounds that they produce, in the meeting room.
First, demonstrate how loud a 9mm handgun is when fired without any silencer. Then how loud it is with a silencer. Then if the silencer gives say, 120db, then produce something else that gives such a volume, such as a leaf blower or a chainsaw on full speed.
Or they could be a bit kinder to those in the room, using a .22lr pistol in place of the centerfire handgun, but the results would still be just as startling.
In my hunter’s safety course, we had the DNR agent for our 2 county area, a friend of the family, actually, give a demonstration of how to tell if a pump shotgun was loaded or unloaded. Then in our high school cafeteria, he closed the action and shot a blank right into the ceiling of the lunch room.
Let me tell you, there is no better way to get the attention of a bunch of mostly 10-12 year old boys, and a few girls, than to fire a shotgun, in the lunch room. This was done on purpose of course, as an object lesson. And I don’t know about the other 30 or so kids, but it is one thing that I never in my life will forget. And I don’t think that firing a 9mm pistol in the room of the committee for a hearing on suppressors would harm anyone. But they could give them hearing protection if need be. No doubt that one of the major headphone manufactures would love to get the publicity by supplying them to the senators or house members.
And the DNR agent, or CO as we used to call them, was Dale Edward Swartz. I am a twin, here in Michigan, come from a small town called Hesperia, and my name is Tim, and my brother’s name is Tom. We had parents who owned a restaurant on the border of both of those counties, which Hesperia straddled, our main street was cut in half with that street, so we were in both counties. Our family was pretty well known, since my parents were working class, who bought a restaurant, owned it for over 30 years, but still were working class, by dad worked the foundry for at least 10 more years after they bought the restaurant.
They were always active in the community, and were the type who would give away their last dime, not worrying about how they were going feed their own family, somehow it always worked out just fine. The thing is, while they believed in God, they were not religious at all.
I would come home after football practice, and then after selling tickets for a girls basketball game, getting home at maybe 8:30pm, from school. And there would be a couple and their 2 young kids set up in the spare bedroom on the lower floor, having run out of gas or having a flat and no spare, and the tire shop was closed til morning. So with my parents owning the restaurant they knew everything that happened in the area. So the bought the family supper, set them up for the night, called the mechanic and told them to order the tires when they first got to work and call our house when they arrived. The family would drive the car just up the hil from our place, to the garage, walk a half a block to the restaurant, and my parents would feed them breakfast, and the tire or tires would be ready to go. The family would pay for the tires, almost without fail, except for one time, when my parents and I both kicked in due to a towing bill. I was single and covered the towing bill and my parents covered the tire.
The thing is, my parents died broke, and owning money on their mortgage. It took me around 5 years as the executor of the estate to pay things off enough to sell the home and pay everything off, without leaving one single black mark on their name. My sister wanted me to just default.
That is why my parents asked me, the youngest of 5, to take care of it.
I would prefer to have parents like mine that to grow up with parents who had riches untold, and properties in the Hamptons, etc. They were involved in the chamber of commerce, helping to beautify the village and to celebrate independence day, veterans day, etc. They were in the sportsman club who drove snowmobiles full of hay bales out to the deep snow back when it was really bad, to help the deer make it through the harsh winters. My dad was on the school board, a man who had to drop out of school at grade 8, to work to help feed their family. He got his GED in the Army. He was one of the most intelligent uneducated men I have ever met.
My mother nailed pallets by hand for over 20 years, with me being able to go down every day in the summer and watch her and the other women working. I learned my work ethic from watching them. I learned my character from my dad.
My dad would drive a friend of mine home every night after football practice, because he lived on a farm, and his dad could not get away from the farm. The only way the kid could play was to walk. My dad and another dad put a stop to that and took turns driving him after practice every night. And he did it with joy, that he could give a young man the chance to play a sport that he loved. And anytime my dad said that he was going to do something, you did not have to worry about him forgetting it, or putting something in it’s place. His kids came in just as importantly as a school board meeting.
I am sorry this took such a turn, so feel free to either cut it or to discard it altogether. I just wanted to sort of let you know a bit of where I come from when I tell you where some of my think stems from. It comes from growing up with parents who were so into my and my other siblings lives that when my twin brother and I had an away double header baseball game, they made a cooler of sandwiches and a cooler of soda, and took it with them and let the team eat during the time between games. Nothing planned by parents, just them out of the kindness of their hearts. Don’t worry, I recognize my good fortune at my parents and the involvement in my life. That never ended, when I got older.
I played sax in a rock band for a few years, and they came to listen to us quite often. I will admit,we were pretty good, playing 60’s and 70’s rock and some country, etc. so it was stuff that they knew. But we had 2 sisters singing who were good enough to go far,if they did not have the same baggage we all did. We were in our 30’s with families and just wanted to play music and have fun. But my parents would come quite often to hear us play, especially when we played in front of 5-10 thousand people.
Again, feel free to cut what you need to