Use of Firearm Suppressors

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Dear Senators and Representatives,

I am a hunter and shooting-sports enthusiast. I would like you to support legislation, such as bill SB 5167 - 2005-06 sponsored by Senator Hargrove in 2006 to simply decriminalize the use of firearm sound suppression devices that are already legally owned.

You may or may not know that these devices are often called by the misnomer "silencer" when they in fact do nothing of the sort. They simply bring the sound level of a shot fired down from one that is highly ear damaging to one that is still very loud but below levels that cause severer ear/hearing damage.

I also know that in Europe, use of firearm sound suppressors is considered good manners, as it decreases the environmental and social impact of firearm noise.

In Finland, for example, they determined that legalization of firearm sound suppressors did not encourage criminal activity of any kind, and is very beneficial to sportsmen, the police, and anyone within earshot of a gun blast. They specifically found that use of firearm sound suppressors does not encourage poaching because the sound suppressor cannot do anything to mitigate the sonic crack of a hunting bullet traveling faster than the speed of sound (which all big-game hunting rifle bullets do).

I encourage you to please examine this issue, and to act on future legislation. This is not a gun-control issue, but a health and environment issue.

I thank you for your consideration as a current and future constituent.

818 Signatures

  • Erin Hively
    • Comments
    • I firmly believe that the use of suppressors to be an issue with noise pollution.
  • Kidd
  • Aaron Moser
  • Victor Prinzen
  • Jeff Nix
  • John Davies
  • anthony kilmer
  • Ruslan Bessarab
  • Joe Hawkins
  • Scott Bouck
  • Peter Ramey
  • Benjamin Triplett
  • Toby Starcher
  • Shane Barry
  • Derrek A. Bull
  • michael barrett
  • john barrett
  • jesse holmes
  • a. hemley
  • Brian Robertson
  • Alex Kuusisto
  • Dustin Ryan Harris
    • Comments
    • Please retract this useless law
  • William H. Childers
  • Derrick Olson
  • Pearl Sanchez
    • Comments
    • Legal to own per Federal Law, legal to own per Washington law, misdemeanor to use per Washington law. This needs to be changed.
  • David Jennings
  • Patrick Bourge
    • Comments
    • Sound suppressors are helpful while hunting, allows shooting not to disturb neighbors, assists with teaching marsksmanship, prevent hearing loss.
  • Zackery Bayes
  • Robert J Beaudine III
  • eric drew
  • Edward Hall
    • Comments
    • The use of sound suppressors will reduce the amount of noise pollution from firearms.
  • Brian Fitch
  • Dean Riccitti
  • Derrick Taylor
  • Trahern Janes
  • Patrick Sherritt
  • Colin Stanton-Wyman
  • Kenneth Dennett
  • Michael Ballsmith
  • Craig Boyer
  • Joe Dewald
  • Chester Beedle
    • Comments
    • It's a pointless ban. Please end it.
  • Theodore Brace
  • Paul Wayne Kleven
  • Caleb Mason
    • Comments
    • it's well established that the people who LEGALLY own these are the law abiding citizens who care about the law instead of criminals with no regard for law
  • stephen mccall
  • Michael Anderson
  • Tim Freitag
  • Joseph Lundberg
  • AL Dodd