Quiet Killers

A security camera captured the incident. At around 6:45 a.m. on December 4, 2024, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was walking along West 54th Street in Midtown Manhattan, on his way to an investor meeting, when an assailant appeared behind him. The man raised his gun — a 9mm pistol with a silencer installed — took aim, and shot Thompson three times from just a few feet away, killing him.

Only after seeing Thompson stumble from the second shot did a nearby bystander realize what was happening and flee. This is because a silencer, or sound suppressor, is designed to muffle a firearm’s sound signature and eliminate its muzzle flash, making it difficult for bystanders and police to recognize that a gun has been fired and identify where the gunshots are coming from. Silencers work like car mufflers but for firearms, allowing the hot gasses that follow a bullet down the barrel to expand and cool before hitting the air outside the gun.

As this incident and many others illustrate, silencers make it much easier for attackers to ambush and kill unsuspecting victims. This is why the federal government imposed strict registration and ownership requirements on the devices back in 1934. Yet as this report details, the gun industry and its backers have spent years trying to undo federal regulations and make silencers easier to own — all while attempting to rebrand silencers as harmless safety devices — and they have redoubled their efforts in the second Trump administration, jeopardizing public safety.

Hiram Percy Maxim invented the first firearm “silencer” in 1902, well before earplugs and other types of hearing protection were commonly used for shooting.¹Emily Rupertus, “Suppressors: The History,” NRABlog, October 5, 2016, https://www.nrablog.com/articles/2016/10/history-of-suppressors/. Maxim was reportedly inspired after his father, Hiram S. Maxim, who is credited with inventing the first machine gun, went deaf from testing his designs. The younger Maxim invented several noise-reducing products over the years, including car mufflers.²Our American Stories, “The Inventor of the Machine Gun Became Deaf—So His Son Invented the Silencer,” September 23, 2024, https://www.ouramericanstories.com/podcast/technology/the-inventor-of-the-machine-gun-became-deaf-so-his-son-invented-the-silencer.

The U.S. military quickly recognized that a silencer could help disguise the location of a shooter. In 1908, the same year Maxim’s silencer patent was granted, the Army found that his devices aided “skirmishers or sharpshooters advancing on an enemy.” During the testing, “[s]hots were fired at varying distances and in no case was the [Army] board able to determine with unanimity the direction of the shots.”³The New York Times, “Gun-Silencer Succeeds,” September 4, 1908, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1908/09/04/104753844.pdf. After another test in which a silencer made a rifle sound “no louder than an airgun,” Maxim declared, “I shall make war absolutely noiseless.”⁴The New York Times, “Maxim’s Gun Proves That It’s Noiseless,” February 9, 1909, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/02/09/101866338.pdf.

Throughout the 20th century, soldiers and spies carried out covert missions with silencers. According to SilencerCo, one of the country’s largest silencer manufacturers, the devices proved helpful for “kill[ing] sentries, guard dogs, and occasional assassination targets on the quiet.”⁵SilencerCo, “The US Military’s Suppressed Weapons,” March 15, 2024, https://silencerco.com/blog/silent-warriors-us-militarys-suppressed-weapons. Today, troops continue to use silencers for the very same reasons, especially snipers. In 2020, the U.S. Marine Corps began issuing silencers to Marines with the stated goal of “increasing lethality and protection” within its ranks.⁶Matt Gonzales, “Marine Corps Begins Widespread Fielding of Suppressors,” U.S. Marine Corps, December 30, 2020, https://www.marines.mil/News/News-Display/Article/2459549/marine-corps-begins-widespread-fielding-of-suppressors/.

Industry Intel

How Silencers are Marketed Today

Silencer manufacturers and retailers rely on several toxic marketing tropes in their advertisements and social media posts, as shown in the examples below. They often depict silencers as a “gateway” to bringing new shooters, especially children, into the fold because they reduce noise. Another tactic is showing silencers in the hands of military and police personnel — using what gun makers call the “halo effect” to legitimize their products for civilians. And many advertisements and social media posts simply downplay or ignore the serious dangers inherent to firearms.

Shortly after silencers were invented, criminals recognized their tactical capabilities. For example, in 1909, criminals in New York City threatened to kill a stable manager and 20 of his horses with a rifle equipped with a Maxim silencer if he did not pay $500.⁷The New York Times, “60 Horses Killed; Boys Held For It,” November 17, 1909, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/11/17/101905349.pdf. In January 1915, a man used a Winchester rifle equipped with a silencer to kill his wife and two daughters while they slept inside their New York City apartment before turning the gun on himself. Neighbors in the nine-story apartment building did not report hearing gunshots. It was the man’s son, who slept in an adjoining room, who discovered the family’s bodies the following morning.⁸The New York Times, “Silent Gun Kills a Family of Four,” February 1, 1915, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/02/01/100680380.pdf.

The New York Times reported at least six more violent incidents involving silencers between 1916 and 1926.⁹See The New York Times, “Arrest Young Actor as Albany Slayer,” February 2, 1916, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1916/02/02/100188274.pdf; “Slayers Escape Police Net,” December 17, 1920, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1920/12/17/103511897.pdf; “Merchant Shot Dead on Visit to Fiancee,” August 29, 1924, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1924/08/29/104701926.pdf; “2 Slain at Smoker in Laundry Feud,” May 12, 1925, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/05/12/101665056.pdf; “Jail 11 Men and Girl for Eighty Hold-Ups and Murder in One,” October 18, 1925, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/10/18/104191682.pdf and “Seize Burglar Gang in Fashionable Flat,” October 19, 1925, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/10/19/99363867.pdf; and “Omaha Gets Sniper; Farm Hand Boasts of Skill in Killing,” February 23, 1926, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1926/02/23/100052092.pdf. In December 1920, three robbers armed with suppressed weapons murdered a Fifth Avenue jeweler in broad daylight and escaped because “[n]eighboring tenants had heard no unusual noise.”¹⁰The New York Times, “Slayers Escape Police Net,” December 17, 1920, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1920/12/17/103511897.pdf. In May 1925, three gunmen with silencers assassinated a man implicated in a gang feud at a party he was hosting with 200 attendees,¹¹The New York Times, “2 Slain at Smoker in Laundry Feud,” May 12, 1925, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/05/12/101665056.pd. and in October of that year, the NYPD broke up two gangs that had committed over 180 robberies and developed a reputation for using silencers.¹²The New York Times, “Jail 11 Men and Girl for Eighty Hold-Ups and Murder in One,” October 18, 1925, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/10/18/104191682.pdf and “Seize Burglar Gang in Fashionable Flat,” October 19, 1925, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/10/19/99363867.pdf.

In February 1926, a man was arrested for killing at least two people with a .22-caliber pistol equipped with a Maxim silencer, “spread[ing] terror from Omaha to Council Bluffs.” Regarding his choice of weapon, the man said, “I just thought that one day I might use [the gun] and would not want anyone to hear me, so I had the silencer put on.”¹³The New York Times, “Omaha Gets Sniper; Farm Hand Boasts of Skill in Killing,” February 23, 1926, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1926/02/23/100052092.pdf.

To prevent more crimes with silencers, a dozen states banned silencers between 1909 and 1933.¹⁴Kel Whelan, “Noiseless Nightmares: How Fear Stamped Out Silencers,” Recoil, June 17, 2022, https://www.recoilweb.com/noiseless-nightmares-how-fear-stamped-out-silencers-175161.html. Maxim himself stopped producing silencers by May 1930, after reportedly selling around 2,500 of the devices, “because of the popular impression that this invention was an aid to crime.”¹⁵The New York Times, “Maxim Bans Gun Silencer,” May 8, 1930, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1930/05/08/96120084.pdf.

Then, in 1934, Congress enacted the National Firearms Act (NFA), which imposed strict regulations on silencers as well as machine guns and easily concealed short-barreled rifles and shotguns. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), “Congress found these firearms to pose a significant crime problem because of their frequent use in crime, particularly the gangland crimes of that era such as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.”¹⁶ATF, “National Firearms Act,” accessed May 27, 2025, https://www.atf.gov/rules-and-regulations/laws-alcohol-tobacco-firearms-and-explosives/national-firearms-act.

Under the NFA, anyone interested in buying or building a silencer must first submit an application to the ATF along with their fingerprints, a passport-style photo, and a $200 tax stamp before undergoing an enhanced background check. They must also notify the chief law enforcement officer in their area of their intent to obtain an NFA item by sending them a copy of their application form. (Before a 2016 rule change by the ATF, the chief law enforcement officer had to sign off on the application, too, but that is no longer required.¹⁷ATF, “Background Checks for Responsible Persons (Final Rule 41F),” accessed May 28, 2025, https://www.atf.gov/rules-and-regulations/laws-alcohol-tobacco-firearms-and-explosives/national-firearms-act/final-rule-41f-background-checks-responsible-persons-effective-july-13.) Only after being approved by the ATF can someone build or take possession of a silencer, which is logged in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR).

As the ATF noted, the registration process was designed “to curtail, if not prohibit, transactions in NFA firearms,” and the $200 tax was “considered quite severe” at the time “and adequate to carry out Congress’ purpose to discourage or eliminate transactions in these firearms.” Yet the tax has not been raised since 1934. Adjusted for inflation, it would be well over $4,700 in today’s dollars.

The NFA has been highly effective in preventing silencers from falling into the wrong hands. Months before he carried out his attack, the perpetrator of the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, attempted to buy a silencer but was unsuccessful because of the purchasing process.¹⁸Sasha Pezenik and Josh Margolin, “Alleged Maine gunman tried to buy a silencer months before Lewiston shootings,” ABC News, October 29, 2023, https://abcnews.go.com/US/alleged-maine-gunman-buy-silencer-months-lewiston-shootings/story?id=104453990. Similarly, the perpetrator of the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, wrote that he wanted a silencer, but they “are hard to get in the U.S. legally, and I don’t have the machining equipment to make one.”¹⁹Mike McIntire, “Manhattan Shooter Used a Silencer. Nearly 5 Million Are Registered in the U.S.,” The New York Times, December 5, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/nyregion/unitedhealthcare-shooting-suspect-gun-silencer.html.

As the gun industry attempts to repeal or replace provisions of the NFA, as discussed below, it is critical to understand that silencers still pose a threat to public safety. An Everytown analysis identified 113 violent incidents and planned attacks involving silencers.²⁰The incidents and planned attacks were gathered from news archives and Department of Justice press releases from 1915 to 1925. Note, however, that there is a 56-year gap (from 1926 to 1982) in the reporting.

In addition to the December 4 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, there have been several high-profile incidents in recent years:

• In January 2023, a mass shooter killed 11 people and wounded nine others at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, California, using a MAC-11 equipped with a homemade silencer.²¹Jeremy White and K.K. Rebecca Lai, “What We Know About the Gun Used in the Monterey Park Shooting,” The New York Times, January 26, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/01/26/us/monterey-park-shooting-gun.html.
• In May 2020, a far-right Boogaloo extremist fired upon officers standing guard outside of a federal building and courthouse in Oakland, California, with a homemade AR-15 machine gun equipped with a silencer, killing one and wounding another.²²U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, “Two Defendants Charged With Murder And Aiding And Abetting In Slaying Of Federal Protective Service Officer At Oakland Courthouse Building,” June 16, 2020, https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/two-defendants-charged-murder-and-aiding-and-abetting-slaying-federal-protective.
• In February 2020, a mass shooter used two pistols — including a Springfield Armory XD with a Dead Air Ghost silencer installed — to kill five people at the Miller Coors Brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.²³Derrick Rose, “’There was no warning this was going to happen,’ Miller shooting witnesses told investigators,” WISN 12 News, November 24, 2020, https://www.wisn.com/article/there-was-no-warning-this-was-going-to-happen-miller-shooting-witnesses-told-investigators/34774224.
• In May 2019, a mass shooter killed 12 people and wounded four others at a government office building in Virginia Beach, Virginia, using two .45-caliber pistols, including a Heckler & Koch USP Compact equipped with a silencer. One survivor said that the shooter’s suppressed pistol sounded like “a nail gun.” She went on to explain that “[i]f it was a regular gunshot, we would’ve definitely known a lot sooner, even if we would’ve had 30 or 60 seconds more. I think we could’ve all secured ourselves…all of us could’ve barricaded ourselves in.”²⁴Phil McCausland, “Virginia Beach shooter killed 12 using silencer and high-capacity magazine. Now, lawmakers might look at both.” NBC News, June 4, 2019, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/virginia-beach-shooter-killed-12-using-silencer-high-capacity-magazine-n1012771.
• In July 2016, a man dressed in full tactical gear and armed with an AR-15 equipped with a silencer attempted to rob a bar in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, but was killed when he pointed his weapon at two police officers.²⁵Sheboygan Police, “Report of Officer Involved Death,” August 2, 2016, https://sheboyganpolice.com/report-of-officer-involved-death/.
• In October 2015, a gang member murdered a restaurant owner inside his garage in Alhambra, California, using a .22-caliber handgun with a silencer installed. Police say the killing was related to an extortion scheme.²⁶Hillary Jackson, “Gang member convicted of killing restaurant owner in his Alhambra home’s garage,” MyNewsLA.com, October 22, 2015, https://mynewsla.com/crime/2015/10/22/gang-member-convicted-of-killing-restaurant-owner-in-his-alhambra-homes-garage/.
• In March 2015, the owner of a Napa Valley winery fatally shot and killed an investor with a .22-caliber pistol equipped with a silencer after a series of lawsuits and claims of misappropriated funds.²⁷Ronnie Cohen and Michael Wines, “A Vineyard Dispute, $800,000 in Cash and Two Dead in Napa,” The New York Times, March 18, 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/us/a-vineyard-dispute-800000-in-cash-and-two-dead-in-napa.html.
• In February 2013, a former police officer killed four people, including two police officers, during a 10-day shooting spree in Southern California. He first killed the daughter of a former police official and her fiancé. Since he used a silencer, no witnesses heard the gunshots, allowing him to get away. Over the next several days, he used a silencer to shoot at officers in their patrol cars, killing one and wounding two more. When police tracked him down, he used a rifle with a silencer to ambush the responding officers, killing another.²⁸The Police Foundation, “Police Under Attack: Southern California Law Enforcement Response to the Attacks by Christopher Dorner,” July 2015, https://www.policinginstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Police-Under-Attack.pdf.

VIOLENT INCIDENTS AND PLANNED ATTACKS INVOLVING SILENCERS

According to the ATF, police recovered over 2,700 silencers from 2014 to 2023, with annual recoveries increasing from 81 to 406 over those 10 years.²⁹ATF Firearms Trace Data, “Firearm Types Recovered and Traced in the United States and Territories,” 2014-2023.

Law enforcement personnel also recovered an estimated 9,130 homemade silencers and silencer parts between 2017 and 2021, representing a 176.8-percent increase from the 3,298 recovered between 2012 and 2016. But the ATF data does not provide details about the incidents in which these silencers were recovered.

To better understand these circumstances, Everytown identified 407 federal cases dating back to 2005 where silencers were recovered.³⁰This figure does not represent all of the silencer crimes investigated by federal law enforcement, only those for which the Justice Department published press releases. Some cases involve multiple individuals. Out of those, 232 resulted in a person being charged with an unregistered silencer, but within those, only 16 — or less than 7 percent — involved possession of an unregistered silencer on its own. All the other cases had elements of other crimes, as shown in the table below, including drug trafficking and illegal gun dealing. Additionally, at least 117 of those cases involved homemade silencers.

federal cases involving silencers

Despite these alarming incidents and statistics, the gun industry and gun lobby have spent years working to relax silencer regulations at the federal and state levels and make the devices easier to obtain. The American Suppressor Association (ASA), a lobbying group sponsored by several firearm and silencer manufacturers,³¹ASA, “Support the Companies that Support Your Rights,” accessed May 27, 2025, https://americansuppressorassociation.com/sponsors/. calls itself “the boots on the ground in the fight to legalize and deregulate suppressors” and “the front-line defense against the anti-suppressor factions that want them banned.”³²ASA, “About ASA,” accessed May 27, 2025, https://americansuppressorassociation.com/about/about-asa/. The ASA’s stated priorities include “fight[ing] to remove suppressors from the National Firearms Act” and “dismantling the law piece by piece until it no longer remains.”³³ASA, “The National Firearms Act is an Unconstitutional Tax!” accessed May 27, 2025, https://americansuppressorassociation.com/hearing-protection-act-reconciliation/.

Since 2017, the ASA has spent more than a quarter of a million dollars on federal lobbying.³⁴American Suppressor Association, OpenSecrets, accessed June 2, 2025, https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?cycle=2025&id=D000084911. The organization’s general counsel, Michael Williams, joined the first Trump administration in 2017 and was reportedly serving as the gun lobby’s “conduit in the White House” by 2019.³⁵Anita Kumar, “Inside the gun lobby’s push to sway Trump,” Politico, September 13, 2019, https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/13/nra-gun-lobby-trump-1493739. His brother, Knox Williams, who serves as the president of the ASA, said that he and Michael were in “close” contact about gun issues at the time.³⁶Elizabeth Landers, “He Used to Work at the NRA. Now He’s Shaping Gun Policy at the White House.” Vice, September 11, 2019, https://www.vice.com/en/article/he-used-to-work-at-the-nra-now-hes-shaping-gun-policy-at-the-white-house/.

The ASA’s influence continues today. In the first quarter of 2025, the ASA hired lobbying firm Tholos Government Relations, paying $40,000 for two of the firm’s lobbyists to represent it on Capitol Hill.³⁷Lobbying Registration, Tholos Government Relations, U.S. Senate Lobbying Disclosure, February 17, 2025, https://lda.senate.gov/filings/public/filing/56dd879b-a632-4e71-8ef0-e7f0d0afa09b/print/. One of those lobbyists was Michael Williams,³⁸Q1 2025 Lobbying Report, Tholos Government Relations, U.S. Senate Lobbying Disclosure, April 15, 2025, https://lda.senate.gov/filings/public/filing/f7292abc-fe38-40a6-aadf-f932a18b6b17/print/. who had joined Tholos in February 2025, the same month the firm registered to represent the ASA. Tholos reported that in addition to Congress, the firm had also lobbied the two entities that had employed Williams³⁹Michael B. Williams, LinkedIn, Accessed on June 2, 2025, https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-b-williams-6b373766/. during the first Trump administration: the Office of Management and Budget and the White House.⁴⁰Q1 2025 Lobbying Report, Tholos Government Relations, U.S. Senate Lobbying Disclosure, April 15, 2025, https://lda.senate.gov/filings/public/filing/f7292abc-fe38-40a6-aadf-f932a18b6b17/print/.

Larger gun groups like the National Rifle Association and National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the gun industry’s trade association, have joined the ASA in lobbying to deregulate silencers while simultaneously trying to reshape the public’s understanding of the devices and market them to civilians.

silencers as safety devices

Their first tactic has been to rebrand silencers as hearing-protection devices. The ASA states that silencers “help to preserve the hearing of recreational shooters, hunters, and hunting dogs around the world.”⁴¹ASA, “Hearing Protection,” accessed May 27, 2025, https://americansuppressorassociation.com/education/hearing-protection/. The group even goes so far as saying that it was “born out of the idea that all law-abiding citizens should be able to use suppressors to help protect their hearing” in 2011.⁴²ASA, “About ASA.”

The NSSF has similarly claimed that a silencer “solves the need for ear protection for shooters who would normally be affected by the noise of the gun shot.” According to the NSSF, “Using suppressors can make shooting firearms safer, more enjoyable and help make shooting ranges more neighborly.”⁴³NSSF, “Benefits of Using Suppressors for Hunting and Shooting Sports,” April 2025, https://www.nssf.org/download/nssf-factsheet-suppressors/. Likewise, the NRA notes that “[m]odern suppressors can reduce the sound of gunfire by up to 36 decibels (dB), which greatly reduces your risk of sound-induced hearing loss.”⁴⁴NRA Family, “Shh … Here’s the Truth About Silencers,” March 9, 2023, https://www.nrafamily.org/content/shh-here-s-the-truth-about-silencers/. The group also claimed that “it is considered bad form to shoot without a suppressor.”⁴⁵Steve Johnson, “Suppressors 101: What You Should Know,” NRA Family, April 8, 2017, https://www.nrafamily.org/content/suppressors-101-what-you-should-know/.

Of course, millions of gun owners have used earplugs and earmuffs to protect their hearing for decades, and electronic versions of both can cancel out the sound of gunfire while amplifying ambient sounds. These devices are affordable, easy to obtain, and pose no threat to public safety.

Additionally, silencers can lead to an increase in poaching⁴⁶Kel Whelan, “Noiseless Nightmares: How Fear Stamped Out Silencers,” Recoil. and make hunting more dangerous for others in the same vicinity. As a Maine Warden Service officer noted, the “discharge of a firearm causes a loud report that all in the immediate area can hear. This cautions those in the area, which can prevent possible safety issues.”⁴⁷Rachel Ohm, “Disquiet greets Maine hunters’ shot at silencers,” Portland Press Herald, November 1, 2015, https://www.pressherald.com/2015/11/01/disquiet-greets-maine-hunters-shot-at-silencers/.

downplaying the threat of silencers

More importantly, gun groups have attempted to downplay the danger silencers pose to communities across the U.S. — despite their use in several high-profile crimes and mass shootings. During a November 2024 presentation, ASA General Counsel Michael Williams said that the total number of crimes committed with silencers — aside from people possessing unregistered silencers — is “very close to a zero number.”⁴⁸Firearms Research Center, “FRC NFA Conference – ‘The American Suppressor Association and Hearing Protection’, Micheal Williams,” November 5, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEoq9vuFKSU&ab_channel=FirearmsResearchCenter, at 42:07. This statement just reinforces the effectiveness of the NFA’s screening and transfer requirements, however.

Williams also argued that silencers “are not very helpful to a criminal because what is a criminal typically trying to do? They’re trying to conceal their firearm. If I’ve got a typical Glock handgun and I affix a suppressor to it, I’m more or less doubling the length of this item, making it much less concealable.”⁴⁹Firearms Research Center, “FRC NFA Conference – ‘The American Suppressor Association and Hearing Protection’, Micheal Williams,” at 42:15. Williams’ remarks came roughly a month before an assassin used a ghost gun, modeled after a Glock and equipped with a silencer, to gun down Brian Thompson.

Days after that shooting, the ASA’s vice president, Owen Miller, claimed that the assassin’s silencer “did nothing to conceal his crime” in an interview.⁵⁰American Suppressor, “Let’s tell the truth about what a suppressor does and does not do.” X, December 18, 2024, https://x.com/AmSuppressor/status/1869400320864125103, at 6:26. Miller also wrote an editorial in which he argued that “the use of suppressors by criminals is virtually nonexistent.”⁵¹Owen Miller, “Don’t Fall for the Fiction on Firearm Suppressors,” RealClearPolicy, December 12, 2024, https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2024/12/12/dont_fall_for_the_fiction_on_firearm_suppressors_1078184.html.

During an interview at the annual Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show put on by the NSSF in January 2025, ASA President Knox Williams said that he has to “deal with” the “assassin taboo” surrounding silencers “all the time,” which he said was fueled by “mischaracterizations and misunderstandings and a lot of willful ignorance.”⁵²CRPA TV, “Could Suppressors be Coming to California in the Future?” YouTube, January 31, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNU4yFQoAWY&t=285s&ab_channel=CRPATV, at 4:31. He did not mention Brian Thompson or his suspected killer, or any other well-known shootings involving silencers.

The NSSF has made similar claims. In a “fact sheet” on silencers, the NSSF dismisses “concerns by some that suppressors will be used in crimes,” stating that they are “unfounded,” as silencers “are very rarely used in crimes.” To back up that claim, the NSSF points to a study “looking at the criminal use of suppressors in California and nationwide between 1995 and 2005” in which a researcher “found 153 federal criminal cases involving suppressors” compared to thousands of homicides committed each year with unsuppressed firearms.⁵³NSSF, “Benefits of Using Suppressors for Hunting and Shooting Sports.”

Once again, the NSSF’s remarks only reinforce the idea that the NFA has been effective. Removing silencers from the NFA’s application and registration requirements would only lead to more crimes being committed with silencers. Case in point: Most firearms are not subject to NFA regulations, and exponentially more crimes are committed with them.

If more crimes are committed with silencers, bystanders and police will have trouble responding accordingly, and cities that depend on acoustic technology like ShotSpotter will have more difficulty detecting when guns are fired and pinpointing its precise location,⁵⁴ShotSpotter, “ShotSpotter Q&A,” June 2019, https://www.soundthinking.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/FAQ-June-2019.pdf. slowing police response times and making it harder for police to collect evidence and solve crimes. In other words, criminals will have a better chance of getting away with their crimes — just as they did before the NFA was enacted.

Within weeks of President Trump’s second inauguration, Republican lawmakers, with the help and support of gun groups, refiled the Hearing Protection Act, which was first introduced in 2015⁵⁵114th Congress (2015-1016), H.R.3799, https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/3799. and would remove silencers from the NFA, allowing licensed dealers to sell and transfer them like conventional firearms — and unlicensed individuals to sell them without background checks in many states.⁵⁶Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID), “Crapo Reintroduces Hearing Protection Act,” February 6, 2025, https://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases/crapo-reintroduces-hearing-protection-act.

When Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho reintroduced the Hearing Protection Act this year, gun groups repeated familiar talking points in a statement with the senator. The ASA’s Knox Williams said, “It’s absurd that our unrestrained federal bureaucracy requires Americans to jump through hoops to buy simple hearing protection devices.”⁵⁷Sen. Crapo, “Crapo Reintroduces Hearing Protection Act.”

In that same statement, Larry Keane, the NSSF’s senior vice president and general counsel, said that the bill would “have the federal government recognize firearm suppressors as accessories…that make recreational shooting and hunting a safer experience.” Keane called silencers “safety devices” that “reduce the report of a firearm to a level that won’t cause instant and permanent hearing damage.”⁵⁸Sen. Crapo, “Crapo Reintroduces Hearing Protection Act.” He has also said that the registration requirements for silencers serve “no public safety purpose.”⁵⁹Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co, “Firearms Industry Cheers Trump’s Victory,” November 6, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-ouIms0vYA&ab_channel=BearingArms%27Cam%26Co, at 9:49.

Finally, John Comerford, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), said, “Gun owners around the world are using suppressors to reduce the impact of noise and hearing loss while using their firearms. Even in countries with the strictest firearms laws, suppressors are often unregulated products that anyone can buy over the counter.”⁶⁰Sen. Crapo, “Crapo Reintroduces Hearing Protection Act.”

Republican lawmakers also refiled the Silencers Helping Us Save Hearing (SHUSH) Act this year, a more extreme bill that would deregulate silencers entirely, allowing them to be sold and transferred without a background check or any record of who obtained them.⁶¹Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), “Lee Introduces the SHUSH Act to Simplify Suppressor Rules,” January 31, 2025, https://www.lee.senate.gov/2025/1/lee-introduces-the-shush-act-to-simplify-suppressor-rules. When it was first introduced in 2024, the NSSF’s Larry Keane stated that silencers “are nothing more than a muffler for a firearm. They reduce the noise level from that which can cause instant and permanent hearing loss to a safe level.” Keane also claimed that the bill would “cut[] unnecessary government regulations for a firearm safety device.”⁶²Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), “Lee Introduces the SHUSH Act to Simplify Suppressor Rules,” July 29, 2024, https://www.lee.senate.gov/2024/7/lee-introduces-the-shush-act-to-simplify-suppressor-rules.

The SHUSH Act has picked up endorsements from the NRA and Gun Owners of America, a far-right gun group that opposes all gun safety regulations.⁶³Sen. Lee, “Lee Introduces the SHUSH Act to Simplify Suppressor Rules.”

While Congress considers deregulating silencers, it is important to note that the gun industry has already removed some of the NFA’s regulatory barriers, leading to a surge in silencer sales — and profits for silencer manufacturers and retailers. While Americans owned just over 285,000 silencers in 2010, that number has ballooned to 4.9 million as of July 2024, representing a 1,604-percent increase.⁶⁴ATF, “Firearms Commerce in the United States,” 2010-2024; Salam Fatohi, “Firearm Suppressor Registrations Outpace Historic Figures,” NSSF, October 8, 2024, https://web.archive.org/web/20250203184224/https://www.nssf.org/articles/firearm-suppressor-registrations-outpace-historic-figures/. Of those, 1.4 million were purchased and registered in the first six months of 2024 alone.⁶⁵This total includes civilian silencers as well as those owned by state and local law enforcement. The NFRTR does not include those owned by the U.S. government: https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/undefined/atf-national-firearms-act-handbook-chapter-3/download.

The data shows that between May 2021 and July 2024, a mere three-year span, Americans accumulated nearly as many silencers as were registered in the previous 87 years — since the NFA first mandated their registration in 1934.

Faster approval times

As mentioned, the ATF removed the need for the chief law enforcement officer in a customer’s area to sign off on NFA applications in 2016, easing one aspect of the silencer-buying process. It was the NSSF that proposed this change in a 2013 letter to the ATF suggesting that the agency “should consider shifting to a notification process” to “remove the unnecessary burden from [chief law enforcement officers] without sacrificing security.”⁶⁶Letter from Lawrence G. Keane to ATF, “Re: ATF 41 P – Machine Guns, Destructive Devices and Certain Other Firearms,” December 6, 2013, https://downloads.regulations.gov/ATF-2013-0001-7573/attachment_1.pdf. After the ATF finalized the change in 2016, the Silencer Shop, a large silencer retailer, called the change “good news” because that chief law enforcement officer “will no longer have the power to prevent your NFA purchase.”⁶⁷Silencer Shop, “Overview of ATF 41P,” January 6, 2016, https://www.silencershop.com/blog/overview-of-atf-41p.

Then, in December 2021, the ATF rolled out a new online “eForms” application system — after successful lobbying by the NSSF — that dramatically sped up silencer approvals. Currently, the ATF reports that its average processing time for Form 4 silencer applications is nine days,⁶⁸ATF, “Current Processing Times,” accessed May 28, 2025, https://www.atf.gov/resource-center/current-processing-times. but retailers estimate that customers can pick up their silencers in as little as three days.⁶⁹Silencer Shop, “ATF Wait Times,” accessed May 28, 2025, https://www.silencershop.com/atf-wait-times. This helps explain how the number of registered silencers nearly doubled between 2021 and 2024.

In April 2024, the NSSF “praised new data” revealing that NFA processing wait times had “significantly dropped following direct NSSF advocacy efforts among lawmakers in Washington, D.C.” The NSSF also stated that it began pushing for the ATF to process NFA applications electronically as far back as 2013.⁷⁰NSSF, “NSSF Successfully Leads Effort to Dramatically Reduce ATF NFA Form Wait Times, New Data Shows,” April 9, 2024, https://www.nssf.org/articles/nssf-successfully-leads-effort-to-dramatically-reduce-atf-nfa-form-wait-times-new-data-shows/.

When the NSSF’s research director announced that Americans owned nearly 5 million silencers in October 2024, he claimed that silencers are now “as normalized among the shooting and hunting community as TikTok is with Gen Z. What was a rarity as recently as a decade ago, it is now a normal occurrence to find a suppressor-equipped firearm at a local range or hunting camp.” He noted that people who “previously dreaded [the] long wait time to purchase” a silencer are now being drawn to buying them. “As a result, silencer registration metrics are off the chart.”⁷¹Salam Fatohi, “Firearm Suppressor Registrations Outpace Historic Figures,” NSSF, October 8, 2024, https://web.archive.org/web/20250203184224/https://www.nssf.org/articles/firearm-suppressor-registrations-outpace-historic-figures/.

Silencer manufacturers have echoed those sentiments. The senior vice president of commercial and law enforcement sales for HUXWRX Safety Company, a manufacturer whose name focuses on the hearing-protection aspect of silencers, recently told Shooting Industry that the approval times had been “a pretty big barrier to entry,” “especially for first-time buyers.”⁷²Tim Barker, “Suppressors: Capitalize On A Market ‘Boom,’” Shooting Industry, May 5, 2025, https://shootingindustry.com/discover/suppressors-capitalize-on-a-market-boom/.

Brandon Maddox, the CEO of Silencer Central, a large silencer retailer, told Outdoor Life, “Before, stuff would just sit on a shelf for seven to eight months. Now as soon as suppressors get in they have to be available because they could be going out just as quick.”⁷³Natalie Krebs, “The ATF Cut Suppressor Wait Times from 10 Months to 1 Day. Here’s Why You Can Get a Suppressor Faster,” Outdoor Life, July 2, 2024, https://www.outdoorlife.com/guns/atf-suppressor-wait-times/.

streamlining applications

Silencer retailers have also streamlined the silencer-buying process. In addition to offering financing options for silencers, companies like Silencer Central and the Silencer Shop will prepare NFA applications for customers, set up “NFA trusts” allowing multiple people to submit one ATF application to own multiple NFA items, collect their fingerprints through mailed kits or kiosks set up at gun shops, and even ship silencers directly to customers’ doors so they never have to set foot in a brick-and-mortar store.

Maddox said that once a customer uses Silencer Central’s checkout system, “you’re gonna be addicted, you’re gonna be hooked, and you’re gonna call us back, you’re gonna tell your friends, and it’s gonna be a win-win for everyone.”

flooding the market

Today, more companies are manufacturing silencers, and “silencer-ready” firearms with barrels threaded to accept them, than ever before. While dozens of companies primarily focus on manufacturing silencers, a number of gun makers have joined their ranks. Sig Sauer and Ruger introduced their first silencers in 2013 and 2016, respectively, and Smith & Wesson purchased Gemtech, a large silencer manufacturer, in 2017.⁷⁴See Patrick Sweeney, “Silence is Golden: SIG Sauer Silencer Review,” Guns & Ammo, September 23, 2013, https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/silence-is-golden-sig-sauer-silencer-review/249786; Ruger, “Ruger Introduces the Silent-SR .22 LR Suppressor,” January 15, 2016, https://ruger.com/news/2016-01-15.html; and American Hunter, “Smith & Wesson to Purchase Gemtech,” July 6, 2017, https://www.americanhunter.org/content/smith-wesson-to-purchase-gemtech/. In the years since, gun makers CZ-USA, Daniel Defense, FN, Primary Weapons Systems, and Savage Arms have all added silencers to their catalogs⁷⁵See Jacki Billings, “CZ-USA Heads Into 2018 With More Suppression,” Recoil, January 1, 2018, https://www.recoilweb.com/cz-usa-heads-into-2018-with-more-suppression-132589.html; Shooting Illustrated, “First Look: Daniel Defense Suppressors,” October 29, 2022, https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/first-look-daniel-defense-suppressors/; Chris Eger, “FN Quietly Joins Suppressor Market with Rush 9Ti Can,” Guns.com, January 30, 2023, https://www.guns.com/news/2023/01/30/fn-quietly-joins-suppressor-market-with-rush-9ti-can; Michael Herne, “Primary Weapons Systems Releases First Suppressor: BDE 762,” August 8, 2022, https://freerangeamerican.us/primary-weapons-systems-first-suppressor/; and NRA Family, “Silence! Savage Arms Announces All-New AccuCan Suppressor Line,” December 6, 2023, https://www.nrafamily.org/content/silence-savage-arms-announces-all-new-accucan-suppressor-line/. — in addition to their many “silencer-ready” firearms with threaded barrels.

Why are so many companies getting in on the act? According to the Silencer Shop, silencers cost between $225 and $2,000,⁷⁶Silencer Shop, “How Much Are Suppressors? What Goes Into Silencer Pricing,” February 28, 2023, https://www.silencershop.com/blog/how-much-are-suppressors. providing yet another revenue stream for the gun industry, and silencer buyers are repeat customers. As the Silencer Shop’s founder remarked, “Once you shoot with a suppressor, you end up getting one for every gun you own.”⁷⁷Andy Sullivan, “Not just for hitmen: Gun industry wants looser rules on silencers,” Reuters, March 8, 2016, https://www.reuters.com/article/world/not-just-for-hitmen-gun-industry-wants-looser-rules-on-silencers-idUSKCN0WA19D/.

In an article written for gun dealers, Shooting Industry noted, “If nothing else, suppressors have profit margins of 25-30% — considerably better than most guns in your store. These items also drive additional sales, including threaded barrels and subsonic ammo” designed to be quieter when fired through a silencer.⁷⁸Tim Barker, “Suppressors: Capitalize On A Market ‘Boom,’” Shooting Industry.

In that same article, Dead Air Silencers CEO Ernie Beckwith said gun shops that “don’t carry suppressors are leaving money on the table with one of the fastest-growing segments of the firearms industry.” Silencer Central’s Brandon Maddox said that silencers provide “additional traffic” to gun shops, as customers may have to visit multiple times as part of the sales process.⁷⁹Tim Barker, “Suppressors: Capitalize On A Market ‘Boom,’” Shooting Industry.

All of these efforts have led to swift silencer sales, something manufacturers and retailers highlight in their marketing efforts, as shown in the examples below.

If silencers are deregulated, the gun industry stands to gain millions of dollars in profit. During a 2023 interview, Maddox boasted that Silencer Central — one retailer among many others — sells “100,000-plus suppressors a year” and had sold $100 million worth of silencers to customers waiting to get approved. In 2017, the ASA’s Knox Williams claimed that “the suppressor industry could multiply by 10 times” if silencers were deregulated.⁸⁰Nick Wing, “Struggling Gun Industry Looks To Congress To Make Silencers The Next Big Thing,” Huffington Post, September 14, 2017, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/congress-gun-silencers-bill_n_59b95c08e4b0edff97188620.

But silencers are just as dangerous today as when they were first invented. They are designed to conceal gunfire, confuse first responders, and give shooters a deadly tactical advantage. But this hasn’t stopped the gun industry from trying to increase silencer sales no matter the cost — following the same playbook gun makers have followed for assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and other lethal innovations — even if it means undoing federal regulations that have been on the books for over 90 years and increasing the likelihood that silencers will be straw-purchased, trafficked, and end up in the wrong hands.

At this critical juncture, lawmakers should update and reinforce the NFA, instead of gutting it, by adjusting the $200 taxes to make and purchase silencers to account for inflation, for example, and implementing stricter vetting procedures for NFA applicants. Enhancing these safeguards would carry out Congress’ original intent with the law and make it harder for criminals and others prohibited from owning firearms to obtain silencers while also providing guardrails for an industry that prioritizes profits over public safety.

Recognizing that silencers are weapons of war unfit for our communities, lawmakers should further consider prohibiting them outright. This is exactly what Congress did with machine guns. While the NFA first placed restrictions on fully automatic machine guns, Congress later prohibited civilians from owning those manufactured after May 19, 1986, by enacting the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act, and many states have adopted policies that ban these types of weapons as well.

The same rationale applies to silencers. These are not safety tools. The risks they pose far outweigh whatever benefits they may provide to hunters and recreational shooters, who have managed to hunt and shoot recreationally for decades without these devices. Treating silencers as the dangerous devices they are is sound policy that can help save lives.