Guns.com by Chris Eger 7/5/2017
Republicans on Capitol Hill last week introduced bicameral legislation that aims to drop all federal regulation of suppressors and silencers.
The Silencers Helping Us Save Hearing Act, backed in the Senate by Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Mike Crapo of Idaho, and in the House by Iowa Congressman Steve King, would mandate that suppressors be treated the same as firearm accessories.
“Suppressors can make shooting safer for the millions of hunters and sportsmen that exercise their constitutional right to use firearms every year,” Lee said in a statement from his office. “The current process for obtaining a suppressor is far too expensive and burdensome. Our bill would remove these unnecessary federal regulations and make it easier for firearms users to protect themselves.”
The bill, entered as S.1505 in the Senate and H.R.3139 in the House, would not only remove suppressors from National Firearms Act requirements — a goal of the rival Hearing Protection Act — but also classify them as simple accessories which could be sold over the counter. The Hearing Protection Act, currently with 154 co-sponsors, would eliminate the $200 transfer tax on suppressors by dropping them from NFA rules, but still requires they should be transferred through federal firearms licensees after a background check, regulating them as firearms. Both bills provide for a refund on tax stamps bought since Oct. 22, 2015.
More:
http://www.guns.com/2017/07/05/lawmakers-introduce-shush-act-to-classify-suppressors-as-gun-accessory/
