Silence Please

It was just another prefect weekend day for me to wallow in my pre-Christmas blues as I relentlessly shopped for unique treasures to give to my love ones on the most festive of holidays. I had scowered a number of vendors at a local flea market and hit several stores in my area. I traveled a route home I had seldom used and found another store that caught my attention. It was a quaint second-hand store with an overabundance of goodies, mostly of which I either had no money or no use for. As I browsed the aisles I happened across a book with a familiar cover. It took me a second for my brain to register I had just happened on a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook.

I could barely contain my jubilation as I snatched the coffee-stained book, half expecting the price to be more than I would be willing to spend. I took it to the counter and was delighted to find it was only $3. I have no use for a book like this, but the novelty is something I couldn’t walk away from. Let’s face it, any cookbook that gives recipes for spaghetti sauce, banana bread, TNT, and other questionable delicacies is well worth reading. As I was reading I came across a section of the book devoted to building silencers for your favorite firearm. This chapter renewed a curiosity I had for a long time. I wanted to learn how a silencer works.

I’m no ballistics analysist or weapons engineer, but I think I managed to figure out a little of the nuts and bolts of what makes a suppressor work. Basically, when a gun is fired there is a fast exodus of gun powder and pressure at the end of the barrel. Some say the actual noise a gun makes is the bullet breaking the sound barrier. While this may be true, it is not the only thing making noise. All the gas and pressure makes the sharp crack we all know and love. The suppressor is simply a tool to control the release of that gas and pressure. In a nutshell, the standard suppressor you would buy is a simple tube with a series of spacers and baffles situated inside.

The end that threads on the weapon has a blast chamber right inside. This allows for the gas ejected from the barrel to expand when you fire a shot. The chamber is a larger space that prevents over-pressurizing the tube. From there the bullet travels the length of the tube. The gas that follows continues into the baffles and spacers. When the gas enters these areas of the silencer there is some time allowed for the gas to cool and exit the weapon slower.

This slow, controlled release of the gas is what brings down the noise level of the weapon. Regarding the baffles, they are what make the whole thing function well. Suppressors can have any number of baffles, from 2 to 12, or more. The more baffles in the suppressor the more noise cancelling capability the unit will have. However, the number of baffles is not the only factor in a suppressor’s ability. The quality of construction and materials used from construction can also impact the suppressor’s effectiveness. We’re talking about materials and craftsmanship that can clobber you over $1,000 for the best of suppressors. Materials used can range from titanium and stainless steel to oil filters, to soda bottles, and any in a number of other professional grade and makeshift components.

Seeing that I am as cheap as they come, I’m going to spend most of my time talking about the good, old-fashioned oil filter suppressor. For those who haven’t actually seen this in action, the name says it all. It is an automotive oil filter fixed on the end of a firearm that reduces the noise the gun makes when fired. At first glance it seemed that simple, but the more I dug and looked, the more complicated the crazy little idea became. The big issue with this approach fashioning a home-made suppressor is the legality. There are minute points and details everywhere that can jam someone up if they approach things wrong. How jammed up, you ask? Jammed up to the tune of $10,000 in fines and up to 10 years in the slammer, courtesy of your friendly ATF Agent.

Let me pause here and throw out a few disclaimers. First, the Anarchist Cookbook is not the greatest source of information regarding anything. I do mean anything. This is a book that can instruct you on how to fire a flaming bottle of gasoline off the end of a shotgun barrel. If that doesn’t sound like a trip to the emergency room on your way to county jail, I really don’t what would. Second, there is nothing that can silence a gun. It is a suppressor, as it suppresses the sound. The little mouse-farts you hear in the moves is nothing close to what the reality is. Third, guns can be dangerous. Please don’t try to make a suppressor for your gun if you don’t know the dangers or the laws associated with doing so. Forth, and final, if you want to get serious about owning a suppressor you can go to your favorite gun store. They’ll know all the laws and forms you should be aware of.

Now, with all that out of the way, let’s talk about suppressors. The anti-gun crowd would ask why we need them. That’s almost a good question. In my research I found one poor lady who wrote about the horrors of an American public allowed to have suppressors. That’s where the question goes bad. There is so much confusion about what suppressors can do for a firearm. It’s sufficient to say you won’t be able to murder someone with your silenced assault rifle and not have the person in the next house over hear you. Again, they only suppress the noise, not silence it. What a suppressor can do is make less ear-damaging noise for shooters. They can also make the forests quieter for the animals, wild or domesticated. When looked at from that angle, suppressors offer more positives than negatives.   

But all the positives in the world don’t change the fact that Americans have to jump through rings of fire to own a suppressor. If you do some reading you discover there are countries where suppressors aren’t nearly as heavily regulated as they are in America. Seeing that I am lamentably poor, I seldom have occasion to travel to places like England and Australia to see for myself. Ironically, these are countries who regulate guns far more than in America. When you compare apples to oranges, it doesn’t seem like suppressors really impact crime that much. On a side note, did anyone else notice Hillary Clinton forgot to mention that when she spoke of the Australian gun control model?

So, if suppressors don’t actually “silence” a gun and don’t have much to do with crime statistics, then what’s the big, fat, hairy deal? In a word, money. When you go to buy a suppressor you will have to purchase a $200 tax stamp. This will include a fingerprinting and photographing session. Again, your local gun store can tell you about all you will have to do to own a suppressor. Yes, despite what some may say, it is perfectly legal to won a suppressor. You simply have to go about it properly. But, going about it properly can be difficult by itself. There can be a very fine line between proper and improper.

Let’s look at the soda bottle approach. I really hope I don’t have to say this is not the proper way to own a suppressor. If you just had the idea “just don’t get caught” go through your mind you need to stop reading and go seek professional help, though I doubt you would benefit from it. The soda bottle method is just that. It’s a soda bottle affixed to the muzzle of your weapon. This is a futile attempt. It doesn’t suppress the noise that well, can be dangerous, and makes the weapon practically impossible to aim.

The next style is a tube with an arrangement of metal screening, oil soaked cotton, plastic bottle caps, rubber baffles, and any other number of improvised materials. This isn’t the best scenario either. A suppressor needs to be a unit designed to stay together. If it’s slapped together with random goodies there is a chance things can shift and obstruct the path of the bullet. This can lead to any in a wide, wide, wide array of failures. These failures can range from send a bullet astray to embedding part of your gun in your forehead. Then there is the possibility of that trip to the emergency room before they take you to the hospital.

Option three is the oil filter approach. This is the middle-of-the-road approach to owning a suppressor. On one side of the road you can do the right thing by going online and purchasing any one of several products which are made to adapt a standard oil filter to the threads on a firearm. These adapters are NFA items and can be shipped directly to your FFL dealer. They generally cost between $55 and $85 and are more than effective. When they are shipped out they come complete with an oil filter. You pay the tax, sign the papers, do the checks and will own your own, legal suppressor. They do limit your ability to aim your gun, but are otherwise generally safe to use.

On the other side of the road you can use the build-up tape method to attach your oil filter. If you’ve been following along you will see this is not the best approach. For one thing, it’s not legal. It’s also not as stable as you need it to be. As you fire your weapon the tape can shift, causing the bullet to possibly bounce around inside the filter as it makes its way towards open air. This method leads us back to the prospect of an extended stay in Camp Graybar.

Aside from the tape build-up method, there are regular adapters you can buy online that can be more stable. You simply need to know the thread size so you can modify the muzzle to accept the adaptor with the mounted oil filter. This is much more efficient and safer than the tape build-up method. However, this counts as manufacturing a suppressor, and is therefore not allowed either. The ATF says “18 U.S.C., § 921(A)(24) The term “Firearm Silencer” or “Firearm Muffler” means any device for silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of a portable firearm, including any combination of parts, designed or redesigned, and intended for the use in assembling or fabricating a firearm silencer or firearm muffler, any part intended only for use in such assembly or fabrication.”

With that in mind, we move on the commercially produced, marketed, sold, and owned suppressors you see at the range. These units are effective, safe to use, and you won’t have to worry about being drug out of your bed in the middle of the night. They are affixed on guns that have been modified by a qualified gunsmith and are meant to enhance the enjoyment of your shooting experience. Again, any reputable gun shop will be able to tell you all about the legalities for your individual state so you are sure your investment is protected.

I do need to take a sidebar here and talk about money, for just a second. The tax stamp I’ve referred to is not necessarily like a license. It doesn’t mean you will be able to get one stamp and own multiple suppressors. It more means you can have multiple tax stamps and own 1 suppressor per tax stamp. Want to own 6 suppressors? That will hit you $1,200, plus the cost of the suppressors. It simply needs to be known you’re facing a $200 investment before you even pick out the style of suppressor you want. Even those who may be thinking about making their own suppressor at home need to know the finished product will need to have a serial number engraved and go through very much the same process.

So, let’s take a minute to talk about decibels. You know, the units used to measure sound. The average human ear should be protected at about 85 decibels, which is where damage can begin. By the time you reach 140 decibels you are playing with an audio fire that will take a long time to recover from, if you can fully recover at all. According to information published by the NRA a .22 caliber firearm can produce decibels of 143.5 decibels. On the larger end of that scale a .458 Winchester Magnum can deliver a whopping 174.4 decibels.

Say what? So, as most anyone who has ever shot a gun knows the muzzle blast far exceeds the levels a human ear can tolerate, undamaged. Now, imagine how your hunting dog feels. Or, if you’re the conscientious hunter who cares, imagine how the deer, rabbit, bear, or hog who didn’t get shot feels. So, all that factored in makes the use of a suppressor a positive for both the hunter and the hunted. On an average most suppressors will reduce the report of the weapon between 14 and 43 decibels, depending on the configuration of the firearm. We can see even the best case scenario wouldn’t allow for that mouse-fart double agent action we see in the movies.

Another point to consider is accuracy. There is a lot of information out there, but the general consensus is a suppressed weapon will not suffer any issues with accuracy. So long as the suppressor is of a type that does not make any contact with the bullet there will be nothing notable about the performance capabilities of the weapon. In fact, the only way a weapon is affected by a suppressor is the threaded barrel, which isn’t illegal to do to a gun but it can bring down the value of the weapon. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of ways around that.

Now, to summarize, suppressors can be a fun and useful tool to add to your firearms collection. Keep in mind improvised devices can be dangerous and land you in a du truck full of stink. As always, have a gun dealer you can trust before you run out and try to pick up your new toy. There are a lot of options depending on the gun you want to suppress and the money you want to spend. Make sure to purchase your suppressor legally and have an effective way to store your paperwork. Do your homework so you know all your local laws. Other than that, keep calm and silence on.