As we reel from the carnage in Las Vegas, Congress is contemplating a bill that would make it easier to purchase silencers that would make it easier to shoot people without making a lot of noise or damaging the killer’s hearing. And guess who thinks this is such a great idea that he made a promotional video on behalf of silencer manufacturers? None other than that great intellectual, big-game killer Don Trump, Jr., son of the guy who, after Las Vegas, said, “We’ll talk about guns later,” meaning, of course, “never.”
Disguised and hiding behind the laughable euphemism, “The Hearing Protection Act,” the provision is, according to US News and World Report:
…tucked into the bipartisan Sportsmen Heritage and Recreational Enhancement, or SHARE Act, [which] would eliminate restrictions on silencers and instead treat them as ordinary firearms. Under the National Firearms Act of 1934, suppressors – along with “destructive devices” such as grenades or rocket launchers, “sawed-off” shotguns and machine guns – require federal registration and a special license to own, as well as a $200 tax stamp to purchase that would also be repealed under the proposed law.
… Proponents of the Hearing Protection Act say suppressors are unfairly maligned and make it harder for hunters to hear their surroundings, potentially endangering them and others.
But gun control advocates have slammed the measure as a boon to manufacturers of silencers, whose sales have been slumping in recent years. They also point out silencers would make it much more difficult for law enforcement to stop shooters like the one who opened fire on an outdoor music in Las Vegas, killing at least 50 and injuring hundreds of others Sunday night.
Law enforcement and military experts oppose the bill. Kris Brown, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said this in a statement after the bill passed out of committee:
There are very effective hearing protection devices already available on the open market…Keeping guns out of dangerous hands and stopping school shootings, ambushes of police and other mass shootings before they can start is the priority for the American people – not making it harder to detect a shooting once it starts.
But that’s not how Don Jr. sees it. In a video released in December 2016, Junior—in a business suit—gleefully fires off a rifle equipped with a silencer, and then shoots a hand-gun similarly tricked out. “I think it’s great,” he says. “I love your product.” Then he calls silencers a “public-health issue,” and “about safety,” that would also be just dandy when “getting little kids into the game.”
But don’t just read my excerpts, witness his testimony in all of its gun-blazing, beyond-belief, insane illogic. Ready. Fire. Aim. No need to cover your ears, though.