For Release: Wednesday, June 14, 2017
VPC Research Details Threat Posed to Public Safety by Firearm Silencers, Proposed End of “Sporting Purposes” Test for Foreign-Made Firearms
Washington, DC — A legislative push by the firearms industry and National Rifle Association (NRA) to make it far easier for private citizens to buy and possess firearm silencers and to eliminate import regulations for foreign-made guns threatens public safety the Violence Policy Center (VPC) warned today. The negative impact of these proposed changes, contained in the “Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act,” which is the topic of a hearing today in the Federal Lands Subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee, are detailed in a newly updated version of the VPC’s study Silencers: A Threat to Public Safety released today as well as a backgrounder on other dangerous provisions in the bill including its impact on what is commonly known as the “sporting purposes” test, which governs the importation of foreign-made firearms–including assault weapons and ultra-concealable handguns.
VPC Legislative Director Kristen Rand states, “Today’s House hearing is the first step in advancing the gun industry’s lethal agenda. By promoting the civilian sale of firearm silencers and attacking the already limited import regulations on foreign-made firearms, including assault weapons and ultra-concealable handguns, the gun industry and its financial partners in the NRA are working to feed an expanding arms bazaar in the United States that threatens the police, public, and policymakers.”
Silencers
Silencers are military-bred accessories that when attached to the barrel of a firearm reduce the amount of noise generated when the weapon is fired. In recent years, the gun industry has aggressively marketed silencers as a new potential profit center and worked with the NRA to remove silencers from the tight restrictions of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA), making them subject only to the same regulations that currently apply to common hunting rifles.
The VPC study explains that bill proponents, including Donald Trump Jr., “would like the public and policymakers to believe that silencers are innocuous devices used merely to protect the hearing of shooters, including children. But in fact, the campaign to deregulate silencers is merely the latest attempt by the gun lobby and firearms industry, in the wake of declining household gun ownership, to market yet another military-bred product with little concern for is impact on public safety.”
Although strict regulation under the NFA has kept the criminal use of silencers relatively rare, Silencers: A Threat to Public Safety documents crimes involving silencers, both legal and illegal, that serve as examples of the appeal of silencers to murderers, terrorists, and other criminals, including:
- In February 2013, Christopher Dorner targeted Southern California law enforcement officers and their families, murdering four people and wounding several others. Dorner used a silencer on the 9mm semiautomatic Glock handgun and AR-15 assault rifle he used in the attacks.
- In January 2016, Samy Mohamed Hamzeh was arrested and charged after acquiring automatic firearms and a silencer in furtherance of a terror plot to commit a mass shooting at a Masonic Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. According to the FBI, Hamzeh explained to an undercover agent, “We want two machineguns, you now have one, so we want two more, and we need three silencers, that’s it….[T]hen we will march…each one has a weapon, each one has a silencer gun, the operation will be one hundred percent successful. I am telling you, to go without silencer gun, you will be exposed from the beginning.” Hamzeh’s goal was to kill at least 30 people believing this would inspire other terror attacks in the United States.
“Sporting Purposes” Test
Other provisions in the bill would eliminate the discretion currently granted federal authorities to control the types of firearms that can be imported into the United States.
As detailed in the new VPC backgrounder, since 1968, federal law has limited the types of firearms that can be imported to those with “sporting purposes.” Certain firearms, such as ultra-concealable handguns and assault rifles, have been found not to meet the “sporting purposes” test and have been excluded from importation to reduce their use in crime. In 1989, the George H.W. Bush administration applied the “sporting purposes” provision to prevent the import of the assault rifles favored by U.S. drug traffickers. In 1998, the Clinton administration reviewed and strengthened the restrictions contained in the ban as part of a comprehensive anti-crime strategy. Since then, the “sporting purposes” test has not been effectively applied by subsequent administrations, allowing for the importation of foreign-made assault rifles like the Romanian AK-47 variant that was found in the back seat of the pick-up truck that was used to run over two Washington, DC. police officers and a Transportation Department officer in DC’s Adams Morgan neighborhood on Thursday, June 8. Rather than jettisoning the “sporting purposes” test, it should be applied more rigorously. In any event, it is important to maintain the government’s discretion to act quickly to respond to emerging threats.
The restrictions on ultra-concealable handguns have, however, remained in force, with the VPC backgrounder warning, “Elimination of the ‘sporting purposes’ test would result in a flood of foreign-made concealable handguns onto America’s streets as foreign manufacturers would be eager to exploit our nation’s weak gun laws.”
Silencers: A Threat to Public Safety includes gun industry catalog images of silencers and statistics on the number of registered silencers in the United States and can be found at https://vpc.org/studies/silencers.pdf. The VPC backgrounder can be found at https://vpc.org/fact_sht/HR2620.pdf.
The Violence Policy Center is a national educational organization working to stop gun death and injury. Follow the VPC on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.