by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier
This report covers:
- What does a firearms silencer sound like?
- What does a silencer do?
- Making the gasses work against themselves
- Silencers and the law
- What you think doesn’t matter
- The problem
- Code talkers
- So — are airgun silencers legal?
- How quiet?
- Times are a-changin’
- Summary
I just heard from someone who went through the legal process of registering a firearm silencer. He waited 11 months for the entire process to go through, and he very recently picked up his $600 silencer.
But — it isn’t silent!
No, It wouldn’t be. Firearm silencers are not silent, nor do they sound like a small airgun, as Hollywood often portrays them. But before you rag on the filmmakers, consider this. You can watch a video of an atomic bomb detonating, where the “sound” is so “loud” that it’s actually a solid visible wave of supercompressed air that shatters buildings. Yet you can watch it in comfort. That’s because your speakers cannot reproduce real sounds that loud — I don’t care how much you spend on them! In the real world people flinch violently when a firearm is fired, unless they are prepared for it. On the big screen it’s no more annoying than a rooster crowing.
