The House passed the budget with the HPA!

[clm2112]

Partial win this morning. The US House passed the budget bill, and it included the Hearing Protection Act. Tax stamps, fingerprint cards, and all the other odious b.s. that go with legally owning a suppressor may soon be a thing of the past. The budget still has to be reconciled in the Senate, so we are not home free yet. And, the SHORT act didn't get included, which is a bit of a downer. However, the prospect of carving a chunk, any chunk, out of the National Firearms Act is a worthwhile target to go for.

The HPA didn't address the Gun Control Act of 1968, so suppressors are still considered "firearms"... so you would still need to purchase them from an FFL, but they would no longer be NFA items if this budget bill makes it though the Senate with the HPA still in it. (It would also open the door to legally making a suppressor yourself.... or an 80% suppressor "kit" )

Hey Racer... gonna add a "Suppressors" section to the build forum?

Personally, I need to brush up on my skills at cutting inside threads into tubes... specifically 1.375x24 TPI to do the suppressor HUB standard thread.

 

[James Moore]

https://www.guns.com/news/2025/05/21/house-committee-sends-bill-full-hearing-protection-act-to-floor

 

[Racer88]

Hey Racer... gonna add a "Suppressors" section to the build forum?

I'm not holding my breath on suppressors being taken off the NFA list. I'll be stunned if it happens.

 

[clm2112]

I'm cautiously optimistic that the HPA is going to make it through. Enough to purchase a few suppressor related items. A Surefire 5/8-24 3-prong flash hider for their Fast Attach suppressors, a matching HUB adapter, and a 308 alignment rod to check concentric installation. About a $350 initial outlay on the chance that it goes through. So, I haven't pluncked down the price tag of a can, but enough to prep one rifle should this come to pass.

 

[Racer88]

If it actually goes off the NFA... I would expect the suppressor market to go nuts and be very competitive. Prices should drop. Then I might just have to get one for my FNP-45T, which has a threaded barrel.

 

[FrankenGlock]

Keeping them classified as is will help control them being in the hand of criminals. No, no it won’t. If, as a society, we can ever comprehend the notion that criminals do not care about laws we will be so much better off. We need to make policies around law abiding citizens rather than the outliers as there is no law that stops murder, attempted murder, illicit drug use, assault, ETC, ETC….

So much BS Hollywood sensationalism surround suppressors. As we all know, it doesn’t make any shot silent. The closest would be a subsonic .22 and that is pretty darn quiet. Think the problem will be that the libs will protest the line item so much it will be removed. I’d bet 1/4 of the Republicans or more don’t know any more about guns or suppressors than the libtards.

 

[clm2112]

If it actually goes off the NFA... I would expect the suppressor market to go nuts and be very competitive. Prices should drop. Then I might just have to get one for my FNP-45T, which has a threaded barrel.

Yeah, if they pull this off, the market is going to go nuts. The price drop might take a while though.... I think there is going to be a lot of dollars chasing a limited number of suppressors. As one on-liner opined, Silencer Central should have invested money into manufacturing capacity instead of blowing it on lobbying to kill the HPA. Eventually though, I agree with you on the prices coming down over time.

 

[Bobster]

As one on-liner opined, Silencer Central should have invested money into manufacturing capacity instead of blowing on lobbying to kill the HPA.

Do you have a link or some other article or such that details this?

 

[FrankenGlock]

If it actually goes off the NFA... I would expect the suppressor market to go nuts and be very competitive. Prices should drop. Then I might just have to get one for my FNP-45T, which has a threaded barrel.

Yes, agreed, suppressor prices would drop precipitously it taken off the NFA list. Would be nice for those home builders.

On The last one I was going to build, the application got ignored, they did not send me the follow up email for the fingerprints, and then rejected because too much time had passed. Keep in mind I was emailing them asking for the fingerprint card and next steps. From my understanding, it was an issue with the ATF under the Biden regime. I was waiting to see how this goes before resubmitting my application for privately made suppressors.

 

[clm2112]

Think the problem will be that the libs will protest the line item so much it will be removed. I’d bet 1/4 of the Republicans or more don’t know any more about guns or suppressors than the libtards.

While I agree that there is a huge knowledge deficit, this is one time where the numbers work in our favor. We only need 51 Senators to leave it in the budget bill, and while I don't trust either side, the Republicans do have the majority. They only need convincing that it is in their best interest, politically, to leave it in and pass the budget.

 

[clm2112]

Do you have a link or some other article or such that details this?

Only what has been published by congressmen themselves. They have to report who is lobbying them and by how much. The fellow who took a bunch of money from Silencer Central chaired the Ways and Means Committee and tried to kill the HPA in favor of his own version that just reduced the tax to transfer a suppressor yet leave it an NFA item. That would be Rep David Kustoff (R Tennesse 8th District.)

Makes sense to me... that congressman's position would dovetail directly with Silencer Central's business model, which is based on doing the NFA paperwork and selling the can directly to the buyer instead of involving a local FFL as the retailer.

 

[Bobster]

I wouldn't mind rolling my own suppressor. I used to be in the "Form1" group on FB before Zuckthecuck erased them. I found it very enlightening and there were many vendors out there offering "sauce cups", assembly kits and such that could be converted into suppressor parts directly along the lines of 80% firearms. And we mustn't forget the WISH and TEMU "solvent traps".

Then the senile shitter stole his way into office and we know what happened next.

 

[Bobster]

...which is based on doing the NFA paperwork and selling the can directly to the buyer instead of involving a local FFL as the retailer.

Thinking out loud here, but how would the wait times have decreased so much under Bidet? Did they get new servers to collate all the forms and create confiscation lists?

 

[clm2112]

Thinking out loud here, but how would the wait times have decreased so much under Bidet? Did they get new servers to collate all the forms and create confiscation lists?

I think the ATF got the word.... do it or else. The "or else" part of that seems to be happening regardless of how fast they sped up the shuffling of paper. Probably some nervousness at seeing your "leadership" getting their walking papers one after another. Pretty soon the desk jockeys will start wondering if they are going to have to sell their McMansion in Alexandria VA so they can move to their new assignment in some place like Lincoln Nebraska.

 

[serger]

If cans go off the NFA "I" see the usual suspects outlawing them
totally. Their argument is they aren't firearms so they aren't
protected. Variations of this are going thru the 5th and 9th
circuits right now. With the 4 SCOTUS DC's we have the
chance of suppressors being classified as non firearms and not
protected by the 2nd are right up there in the top ten major
fuckups SCOTUS has made.

 

[FrankenGlock]

Yep, didn’t think of that. It will happen if they are removed from the NFA.

 

[clm2112]

Yep, didn’t think of that. It will happen if they are removed from the NFA.

I think they have insulated this a little. The proposed HUSH act would have removed them from both the NFA and the GCA at the same time. But the HPA only addresses the NFA. At first I though this was a sell-out and thought the HUSH act was a better approach. However, by removing them from just the NFA and leaving suppressors as "firearms" under the GCA is perhaps the smarter move. This clearly makes a suppressor an item protected by the Second Amendment, and thus harder to ban. As an "arm" under the 2A and the GCA, as well as having the numbers to be in "common use", we might make the ban as hard as the unsuccessful attempts to ban pistols and such.

I know, it is goofy to think a suppressor is anything other than a very well made automotive muffler, not an actual "Firearm"... but that logic is working in our favor.

 

[Curmudgeon]

Think I am going to be buying a new threaded barrel very soon. Maybe two.

 

[Bobster]

I know, it is goofy to think a suppressor is anything other than a very well made automotive muffler, not an actual "Firearm"... but that logic is working in our favor.

An interesting look at silencers ("moderators") is to look at jolly ol' England. This article is from 2014 so a LOT has changed in England regarding moderators but a lot still applies. LINK I'm not sure of the exact laws/requirements now, but they have made them licenseable, then removed the requirement and they are also required on many guns.

You want to talk about a nanny state, look at England and their STUPID parliamentary system...

 

[clm2112]

Think I am going to be buying a new threaded barrel very soon. Maybe two.

I've already picked the two I'm doing, and selected the suppressor I want. A Remington 700 in 308 Win gets a mount, and a 300 Blackout AR upper gets one too. That covers my favorite hunting rifle as well as a general purpose "fun" toy for the range. The can I'm looking at is a Griffin Bushwacker 36... simple, multi-caliber, and with a baffle stack I can remove for cleaning (I like shooting cast lead, so that feels important to me.) I'm even considering sending my Pac-Nor stainless Rem 700 barrel off to get cut down to 18" and threaded. I don't know if my lathe can handle the accuracy to get the muzzle thread concentric to the bore at the level to keep the can concentric.

According to the news this afternoon, Trump wants the budget bill ready for signature before July 4th. Now the pressure is on the Senate.