What you need to know about supporting the Hearing Protection Act (HPA)

The Democrats are going crazy, but this is your chance to assert a very valuable Second Amendment right.

We’ve got some fantastic news for you folks, but it’s tempered a little bit, and that’s where you come in to help out. The Hearing Protection Act (HPA) recently passed out of the House of Representatives as an integral part of President Trump’s Big Beautiful Budget Bill. It is now on its way to the Senate to hopefully be passed in the budget reconciliation process.

What is the Hearing Protection Act (HPA)?

Essentially, it takes firearm suppressors out of the National Firearms Act of 1934 and regulates them as plain old firearms. So, instead of having to beg the federal government for permission to own a piece of safety equipment, being mug-shotted and finger-printed like a criminal, you simply fill out a form, pass a background check, and walk out with your property. That’s not ideal, but one thing at a time.

Firing a suppressed gun. Public domain.

The American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) for Hearing Preservation specifically endorses firearm protectors:

Sound suppressors are mechanical devices attached to the barrel of a firearm designed to reduce harmful impulse noise of firearms at its source. CDC research has shown that “The only potentially effective noise control method to reduce [shooters’] noise exposure from gunfire is through the use of noise suppressors that can be attached to the end of the gun barrel.”1 Suppressors reduce muzzle blast noise by up to 30 dB.2

As the Website Ammoland noted, “The article contains a paragraph clarifying that the publication and organization are not making a legal or political statement. They are stating a medical fact.”

Suppressors, aka cans or the wrongly exploited term silencer, are nothing more than mufflers for a firearm, consisting of a series of metal plates with holes within a metal cylinder that is screwed onto the muzzle end of a gun.

A suppressor traps the rapidly expanding hot gases that propel a projectile from the muzzle of a gun, cooling and slowing them down through a series of these metal plates or baffles to reduce that portion of the sound of a gunshot. Despite the mythology perpetrated by the left and Hollywood, suppressors do not reduce the sound of a firing gun down to the level of a kitten sneezing into a pillow.

There isn’t anything magical about these mere pieces of metal. They work in a similar manner to a muffler or the industrial silencers that are used to reduce the noise from various industrial processes. Full disclosure, I worked as an engineering intern for a company that produced industrial silencers, studying and mathematically modelling their performance.

A gunshot has three distinct sound signatures: The mechanical action of the firearm, the expanding hot gases from the muzzle, and the crack of the sonic boom of the bullet. Typically, suppressors only reduce this second portion of a gunshot by about 25 to 35 dB;

For reference, normal conversation typically registers around 60 dB, while a lawn mower operates at approximately 90 dB. An unsuppressed firearm can generate between 140-175 dB, well above the 140 dB threshold where immediate damage to unprotected hearing can occur. Modern suppressors typically reduce this by 25 to 35 dB, bringing the sound levels down to a more manageable range that sounds more like a .22 LR rifle, though still not “Hollywood quiet.”

Thus, shooting with a can won’t be like the ridiculous (but entertaining) silenced pistol fight in John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), where the people walking by don’t even notice that guns are being fired. It will still be a very good idea to wear hearing protection, but suppressors will significantly reduce the noise, protect your hearing (hence the name), keep your neighbors happy, and make shooting a much more pleasant experience.

Unfortunately, while these devices have been used in Europe to correctly reduce noise, in the U.S., they are demonized. That’s for two reasons: first, they might facilitate poaching, and second, because of crime.

Given that bias, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to regain some firearm freedoms. Naturally, the leftist gun-grabbing ghoul lobby is losing its collective mind over this development, so they are going full fear-mongering mode in pumping out the hysteria and the lies.

William Kirk, from Washington Gun Law, produced a good “Halftime report” on where we are now to get you up to speed on the issue:

There’s also this update from Braden of Langley Outdoors Academy:

The far left and the national socialist media (which are one and the same) are wish-casting on all cylinders, hoping for disarray on the pro-freedom side of the aisle, placing far too much stock in the claim that the Big Beautiful Bill is DOA. In fact, the Senate leans toward preserving much of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill:

Senate Republicans are hotly debating whether to do a full teardown of the House’s sweeping tax and spending bill, or gently renovate it. Right now, the renovators are winning out.

We’re more focused on the Senate parliamentarian and the Byrd Rule, and this is just the beginning of the politicking.

Because later on, you will need to melt the phone lines for the Senate as we did for the House. So, get ready to call the switchboard number (202) 224-3131 to have your Senator support the Hearing Protection Act (HPA).

Originally published on the American Thinker.