Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) claims the attacker who opened fire on Las Vegas concert goers was only stopped “because he didn’t have a silencer on his weapon.”
According to the Washington Post, Kaine asked, “Can you imagine what this would have been if he had silencers on those weapons?”
His use of the word “silencer” is an echo of other leftists like Rosanne Cash and Gabby Giffords, both of whom use the word “silencer” to describe suppressors. “Silencer” is misleading insomuch as it gives the impression that suppressors silence firearms in real life the way they do in movies. But they do not. Rather, they simply muffle the initial, ear-piercing sound wave created when the bullet is fired.
Kaine’s former running mate, Hillary Clinton, made a similar claim about suppressors on October 2. She tweeted:
On October 3, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc) took a position closer to Kaine and Clinton than to the pro-Second Amendment community by shelving legislation containing suppressor deregulation.
The bill–the Hearing Protection Act–was expected to come up for a floor vote soon.
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.