Gun industry seeks to ease restrictions on silencers https://t.co/37R5TQFLC3

— Dr. Matt (@DrMatthew) February 13, 2017

Now, emboldened by the election of Donald Trump as president, the industry has renewed a push in Congress to ease those restrictions, arguing that it’ll help preserve the hearing of gun users.

“We look at this as a Second Amendment issue. We look at it as a health issue,” said Erich Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America. “The decibel level of a fired gun, even the lowly .22-caliber, can cause hearing damage.”

Since the 1930s silencers have been regulated under the National Firearms Act, facing the same paperwork, $200 tax and background checks required to buy a machine gun.

[…]

U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan, a Republican from South Carolina, is a sponsor of the “Hearing Protection Act,” the latest attempt to pass such legislation. It’s previously been met with resistance, especially under President Barack Obama and among Democratic lawmakers who view it as a gun-promotion issue.

It doesn’t hurt now that Trump’s son Donald met with SilencerCo and was videoed trying out their products.

“I’m cautiously optimistic,” Duncan said. “Don Junior, who is an avid hunter himself, has come out in favor of this particular legislation. And so he gets it. That gives us a little bit of juice within the White House and the executive branch. And hopefully we can tap that energy and have it transfer over to the legislative branch.”