Firearm Suppressors Are a Tool for Preserving Hearing

Firearm Suppressors Are a Tool for Preserving Hearing

By John Commerford
March 13, 2025

Since the spy movie genre exploded during the Cold War, Hollywood has depicted
firearm suppressors in a manner divorced from reality, idealizing them as a tool
used by stealthy assassins to kill while remaining whisper quiet.  Even today,
as Hollywood churns out one movie, mini-series, and streaming series after
another about elite soldiers, they maintain the fiction of the so-called
"silenced" gun.  While entertaining, the mythologized depiction of firearms
suppressors is hardly truthful.

But what is true is that suppressors reduce the noise of a gunshot by an average
of 20 - 35 decibels. What's also true is that noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL)
and tinnitus (ringing in the ears) are serious health issues everyday people
confront, and that's why America's gun owners have mobilized in favor of the
Hearing Protection Act introduced by Rep. Ben Cline of Virginia (H.R. 404) and
Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho (S. 364).

Without this commonsense legislation, firearm owners will continue to be
hamstrung in protecting themselves from NIHL. According to the federal
Occupational Safety and Health Administration, hearing damage occurs when noise
hits 140 decibels and higher.

Let's put that number in context.

Noise from an AR-15 firing standard ammunition ranges from?160 to 175 decibels.
The Spokane, WA, Police Department uses an AR-15 variant that clocks in at 152
decibels. To protect its officers from hearing loss, and that of any civilians
who may be in proximity of a firearm discharged by Spokane's police force, their
rifles are equipped with suppressors. Even so, that gets the decibel level to
134, which is still louder than an ambulance siren. "It's nothing more than like
the muffler you put on your car," a Spokane Police officer said by way of
analogy. That's a far cry from James Bond's fictional suppressor, which might be
comparable to the sound of rainfall (50 decibels) or a whisper (20-30 decibels).

While the use of conventional hearing protection is highly recommended while
hunting or on the range, the truth is, it's just not enough. Roughly half of all
firearm users wearing earplugs fail to achieve 25 decibels of noise reduction,
according to National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) data.
However, the use of a suppressor while also wearing conventional hearing
protection is more effective at mitigating the risk of NIHL than either method
by itself. That is why the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck
Surgery (AAO-HNS), one of the world's largest membership organizations
representing doctors specializing in ear health, endorses the use of suppressors
as an effective method to reduce the risk of hearing loss.

Unfortunately, senseless and overzealous suppressor restrictions currently block
gun owners and sportsmen from practicing their sport with the safety tools they
need. The Hearing Protection Act will help them by removing suppressors from
regulation under the National Firearms Act (NFA) and put a simple background
check in place of the current transfer process.

To obtain a suppressor, an add-on that does nothing to make a firearm more
lethal, a person has to commit to a process more invasive, time-consuming, and
costly than the purchase of an actual firearm.   The process includes submitting
to a background check, paying a $200 non-refundable tax, providing fingerprints
and photographs to the ATF, and enduring an application processing time that
ranges from weeks to months.

The Hearing Protection Act's prospects of advancing are particularly encouraging
considering that in the last Congress Senator Bob Menendez introduced a bill
that, under the guise of enhancing public safety, would have banned the
importation, sale, manufacturing, transfer, and even the very possession of
suppressors. Menendez, who was sentenced in January to 11 years in prison after
being convicted on 16 counts of political corruption, disingenuously argued in
2021, "Gun silencers are dangerous devices with one purpose and one purpose
only-to muffle the sound of gunfire from unsuspecting victims." The reality is
that suppressors are rarely used in crimes and, Hollywood fantasies aside, the
science clearly demonstrates that suppressors absolutely do not "silence"
firearms.

The Menendez bill was even more absurd compared to how our European friends
treat suppressors.  Though their firearms laws are considerably more restrictive
than ours, European countries actually encourage suppressors as a matter of
public safety and etiquette.

Clearly, the failed bill's sponsors saw the legislation as supporting their
overall effort to curtail and roll back Americans' Second Amendment rights.

Hollywood excels at creating amazing stories that entertain and move us, even
when the details stretch the truth or break from reality altogether.  That being
said, we shouldn't base policies on cinematic fiction, nor should we fall victim
to fearmongering from anti-gun activists who would imagine that access to a
suppressor would suddenly make assassins of lawful gun owners.

A suppressor is a critical safety device to reduce the impact of noise and
protect against hearing loss. That's why gun owners must reach out to their U.S.
Representative and Senators in Washington and request that they support the
Hearing Protection Act.

John Commerford is Executive Director of NRA-ILA.

https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2025/03/13/firearm_suppressors_are_a_tool_for_preserving_hearing_1097345.html