WATCH: NSSF Holds Firearms Suppressor Demonstration Featuring Daniel Defense, Sig Sauer

Last week the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) held an event in Manassas, Virginia,  focused on the hearing protection offered by firearm suppressors.

Suppressors and firearms from Daniel Defense and Sig Sauer were used at the event, which was designed to be hands-on. This means the reporters and writers who were present got to shoot every firearm and use every suppressor at the range.

Breitbart News attended the event, which drew attention to the suppressor legislation contained in the Hearing Protection Act. That Act was put forward by Representatives Jeff Duncan (R-SC-3) and John Carter (R-TX-31) on January 9. It is focused on the hearing protection offered by firearms suppressors–protection that far exceeds that provided by ear plugs or muffs–and eliminating many of the cumbersome steps to suppressor acquisition, thus streamlining the gun owner’s process of getting the hearing protection he needs.

NSSF focused on these major points:

1. Firearm sound suppressors reduce, but do not eliminate, the noise of gunfire to levels safer for one’s hearing.
2. It is legal to own a suppressor in 42 states, and legal to hunt with a suppressor in 40 of those 42 states.
3. Although suppressors are already legal in over 4 out of 5 states, they “are rarely used by criminals.” Instead, they are used as “important safety devices” that provide hearing protection and “help reduce noise complaints against [gun] ranges.”
4. The Hearing Protection Act would not completely deregulate but sale of suppressors but would eliminate “the current onerous process,” which means “the purchase of a suppressor would follow the same rules as the purchase of a firearm including an FBI background check.”

Sig Sauer’s Jared Hillis was on hand to discuss his company’s firearms and suppressors. He said, “The biggest misconception that I’ve heard is that everybody thinks that it is going to make the firearm completely silent, which is just not true. What it’s doing is it’s regulating the gases coming out the end of the barrel, so there’s not that big [explosive], concussive over-pressure happening. But it still sounds like a gun shot.”

Daniel Defense’s Lee Thompson said, “For a lot of people, their only exposure to… sound suppressors is from the media; from Hollywood movies, television, and that’s not the most accurate representation of how the product actually works. Gun muzzle blast is an extremely loud event, a sound suppressor dampens that to some extent but it does not completely eliminate it. It is still a loud event.”

Reporters and writers gathered at Elite Shooting Sports and were able to shoot the firearms without suppressor and then with a suppressor attached, in order to see the difference first hand. They were also able to shoot firearms which are integrally suppressed, which means the suppressor is an nondetachable part of the firearm itself.

The firearms attendees were able to sample included various offerings from the gun makers including the the a Daniel Defense DDM7 variant, Sig Sauer MPX 9mm, Daniel Defense DDM4 ISR, and Sig Sauer 227 and MCX 300 Blackout. Suppressors for each of the firearms were on hand as well.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com