SilencerCo suppressors
Dan Z for TTAG

From the American Suppressor Association . . .

This afternoon the Virginia House of Delegates voted 51 – 48 in favor of passing House Bill 961, Delegate Mark Levine’s (D-45) “assault firearm” and suppressor ban. All 45 Republican Delegates voted against the bill. They were joined by Del. Lee Carter (D-50), Del. Steve Heretick (D-79), and Del. Rosalyn Tyler (D-75), with Del. Kelly Convirs-Fowler (D-21) abstaining.

Now that the bill has passed the House, it will move to the Senate for consideration by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The suppressor provisions of House Bill 961 were amended in Committee on Friday, removing the confiscation provision that was previously included. Should the bill become law, anyone who possesses a federally registered suppressor in Virginia prior to July 1st would be able to legally maintain possession of their property.

However, the acts of importing, selling, manufacturing, and purchasing suppressors would be prohibited for civilians after enactment. For this reason, among others, HB 961 remains a bill that the American Suppressor Association strongly opposes.

The relevant suppressor language, which was passed by the House, reads:

18.2-308.11. Import, sale, transfer, etc., of silencers; penalty.

  1. It is unlawful for any person to import, sell, transfer, manufacture, or purchase a silencer, provided that a person may transfer a silencer in accordance with the provisions of the National Firearms Act (26 U.S.C. § 5801 et seq.). A violation of this section is punishable as a Class 6 felony.

The American Suppressor Association will continue to fight against HB 961, but we need your help. If you are a Virginia resident, please take the time to contact members of the Senate Judiciary committee by using our form below. We ask that you politely urge them to oppose this draconian legislation.

27 COMMENTS

  1. What a bunch of stupid idiots. This stupid illegal so called law will be thrown out if Federal court. No state can amend the National Firearms Act. Stupid moron Nazi Democrats. 2A is a Federal Civil Right. Federal law is the Supreme law of the land and overrides anything on this toilet paper loser bill. See you in Federal Court stupid Democrats.

  2. And what good will come of this?

    The Democrats have gone full mental panic over gun control. Have they proposed Bill’s on any other topic or they don’t have any other policies?

    • Sure they do: Orange Man Bad, censoring “hate speech”, stoking Cold War 2.0 flames and more kickbacks to the banks and insurance companies.

      A middle-class, economy focused, working mans platform if there ever was.

  3. It’s just leftist gun owner bigotry. They hate gun owners. Period. Even how amazingly regulated silencers are, they still sought to punish gun owners for protesting and bothering their new ruling cultural group with such protests.

    If they could ban gun owners themselves – they would.

  4. This says it’s illegal LLP provided it’s done in accordance with the NFA.

    So what exactly does this say? It certainly sounds like it says nothing. Silencers are already NFA items. Unless this is meant as a safeguard against suppressors being removed from the NFA list.

    • “So what exactly does this say? It certainly sounds like it says nothing.”

      It appears it will outlaw possession of silencers for the next generation, since it refuses you the ability to transfer on your eventual death.

      TTAG legal folks – If citizens in VA set up an amendable NFA firearm trust, would that side-step having to sell or surrender one upon your death? Since the trust still ‘owns’ the NFA device, would this allow silencers to be kept in perpetuity by a family, for example?

      • Usually a new ban proposed or passing will cause a round of panic buying, but if this passes it may already be too late unless they include ones already in the pipeline, but sounds like you would already have to possess it, and most form 4s are running almost year.

        Might be able to sneak a form 1 individual in time, probably not. So fighting the legislation is likely the only option at this point.

        If you are already on an individual form I wonder if you would even be able to switch it to trust in time, which usually needs a stamp I think since it is changing owners. And definitely would need a lawyer to answer whether an irrevocable trust or revocable could still transfer to descendents or not.

        • By my reading, you can buy as many as you want prior to July. Transfers, except NFA, are prohibited, so your Form 4s can come later. You would also be able to transfer to someone else, as long as it wasn’t a sale. The easy way to sell them is to make them property of a company or trust. You can sell the company, but the silencer stays as property of the company without transferring to someone else.

    • Two guesses:
      1) They are amending a law and just screwed up the language in a way that doesn’t matter
      2) They are amending the law but making sure not to trigger a weird aspect of the 5th Amendment that can render a law unconstitutional if you basically force people to self-incriminate to another crime. So if someone owns a silencer that is not under the provisions of the NFA and are committing a federal crime, the state may not want to make it illegal under this statute for them not to do something about it because you can’t force a criminal to ‘confess’ to one crime to avoid another. That’s why you can (and are supposed to) report income on your tax forms that isn’t legal.

  5. I can only bet that will get signed quickly once passed through senate. Then next year they will ban grandfathered cans. Soon enough people will start saying, well why dont you move out of virginia.
    Welcome to what west coast gun owners have dealt with.

    • Speaking of which, has anyone ever publicized what can the VA Beach killer used? A legal, registered, stamped one, or a homemade “solvent trap”? Or was he even using a can?

  6. Here I thought moving to Virginia was a great thing two years ago. I’m out of here in 2021 due to an eventual move, but holding on my my rightfully owned property is going to create some logistical issues. I still have a can that SIlencerCo hasn’t shipped yet to my dealer. I wish I could cancel the order, but it is too late. No refunds on special orders. Hopefully the senate will do the right thing and shit can this abortion of a law.

  7. I used to know a gun guy from Australia who moved to the states in the 90s, after Port Arthur, and settled in upstate New York. After NY SAFE, he got a new job in Virginia and moved again. Last I heard from him, he was still down there.

    I feel sorry for the guy, but at this point I’m starting to wonder if he isn’t cursed.

  8. They know if there is no grandfathering clause confiscation will turn into a disaster. The SHALL FACTOR in VIRGINIA is huge now. CERTAIN PEOPLE are looking for an excuse just to say no. Pray for peace, but prepare for war.

  9. I’m not seeing where you can “keep” your suppressor or any accessory named in the law. There is a provision to keep the defined gun, with a permit, but the law (which I did read) holds no provision for keeping an accessory after Jan 1st. Am I missing something or is the available text of the bill not up to date?

    • Peter, I don’t see language either way about currently owned suppressors. I do see language about my 30 round mags that I have to give up by 1/1/2021.

      • Here’s the part where it states what you need to do with accessories”, I’ve capitalized certain points. As I say this is the version of the Bill available online, it’s possible it’s been amended and not posted. This version states that between July 1st and January 1st the “silencer” needs to be destroyed, transferred out of state or turned in, same as high capacity magazines.
        “Any person who legally owns an assault firearm, as defined in § 18.2-308.8, large-capacity firearm magazine, as defined in § 18.2-308.9, silencer, as defined in § 18.2-308.10, or trigger activator, as defined in § 18.2-308.11, on July 1, 2020, may retain possession of such assault firearm, large-capacity firearm magazine, SILENCER, or trigger activator UNTIL JANUARY 1, 2021. During this time period, such person shall (i) render the assault firearm, large-capacity firearm magazine, SILENCER, or trigger activator PERMANENTLY INOPERABLE; (ii) REMOVE the assault firearm, large-capacity firearm magazine, SILENCER, or trigger activator FROM THE COMMONWEALTH; (iii) TRANSFER the assault firearm, large-capacity firearm magazine, SILENCER, or trigger activator to a person OUTSIDE THE COMMONWEALTH who is not prohibited from possessing the assault firearm, large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator; or (iv) SURRENDER the assault firearm, large-capacity firearm magazine, SILENCER, or trigger activator TO a state or local LAW-ENFORCEMENT agency.

  10. In case it was unclear…

    The anti-people aren’t interested in what u think, want, or benefit from. They have their constituencies, and u aren’t among them. Indeed, abusing deplorable you via govt and “the law” is a payoff for their sponsors (and them; they enjoy it.) From apparatchiks of Bloomie’s meglomania, through anti-fu-fu-fu getting off on righteous thuggery, to the safely encysted smug, low-level “officials”, staff, media, n functionaries in their sponsored ministries faked as industries. (When movie production gets breaks n grants wherever it goes, how is it not an arm of the state?) They’re all part of the same universal grift.

    They won’t reconsider. They won’t moderate. They will not stop. How the named thing comes out isn’t the point. Who’s zooming who is. And it’s all over the place n any issue you can name. Fracking opinion study came out today from Colorado — people where it’s done are for it; city folk where it’s not are against. So ban it!

    They and their sponsors get off on stepping on you n what you want. You are fodder; not even cattle to live off of but The Washington Generals without the paycheck.

    So, vote them out. Join together to sue every power grab. Go after every procedural shenanigan, every time. Band together in mutual interest groups, to support whoever they try to pick off. Build over, under, and around — make them work for the slice of yr work they’re gonna appropriate. (Yr anti-people bank? Fine, we’ll bank somewhere else.)

    Every one of them. Every position. Every interaction for the rest of time: Irredeemable in self- government. They can work if they can find something useful to they can do. Live among us in the world that works we create. They wanna have an opinion — no. (Why? Look at what you did.) They want something — no. (Why? Because you wish it.) They wanna participate in self-government — go for it. We’re playing now too & u want it, we reject it. (Why? “No” is just a good answer to anything from peopoe who just want you crushed.)

    The TEA Party was polite n acted like somebody would listen. They got ignored when they weren’t being smeared. Message received. Politics ain’t bean bag. >22,000 people show up outside the anti-people’s fences, n the only response is looking for more smears.

    Message recieved. Try to fence people out of the polls.

  11. “I fear we have wakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.”

    Yamamoto was smarter than any of these clowns.

  12. Wait a minute, wasn’t it Lee Carter who all of you fudds were wailing, gnashing your teeth and rending your garments over because you thought he was an evil gun-grabber? You remember, the Lee Carter that folks were sending death threats to? Cmon folks, yall aint been drinking the Hoppes now, have you?

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