Courtesy NRA

By NRA-ILA

In response to reports that the Virginia Beach shooter used a firearm suppressor in carrying out his terrible crime, David Chipman, Senior Policy Advisor for the Giffords gun control group, claimed that a suppressed pistol is especially dangerous because the noise associated with the firearm is difficult to distinguish from a nail gun. As per usual for claims Chipman and his employer make about firearm suppressors, this is false.

In an article appearing in the Virginian-Pilot, Chipman claims, “The gun does not sound gun-like. It takes the edge out of the tone . . . This is how I would describe it: It makes a gun sort of sound like a nail gun.”

But, a suppressed .45 caliber pistol, like the one that is reported to have been used in Virginia Beach, is many times louder than a nail gun:

  • A suppressed .45 caliber pistol produces about 130-135 dBA.
  • Decibels (dBA) are a logarithmic scale, so sound levels increase in a non-linear fashion. A 3 dBA increase doubles the sound pressure level. (Although most people perceive a 6 to 10 dBA increase as double the noise level.)

The 30-35 dBA difference between a nail gun and a suppressed pistol will be perceived as at least eight times louder to the human ear.

As an interesting comparison, an unsuppressed pistol produces about 165 dBA. So the difference between an unsuppressed and suppressed pistol is about the same difference in sound pressure level between a suppressed pistol and a nail gun.

Chipman can’t have it both ways, if, as he claims, suppressed gunfire can’t be easily identified as gunfire, then suppressed gunfire doesn’t sound anything like a nail gun.

This isn’t Chipman’s first attempt to mislead the public on firearm suppressors. In 2017, he made a false claim about the design intent of suppressors. And, his employer received three “Pinocchios” from the Washington Post fact checker for misleading claims they made about suppressors.

Unfortunately, the Virginian-Pilot article created further confusion about suppressors by producing audio files that purport to show the difference in sound level between nail guns, suppressed pistols, and unsuppressed pistols. Listening to recorded audio through speakers or headphones cannot accurately depict these sound differences. Due to microphone and speaker specifications, most sounds in audio recordings are reproduced at a similar sound level. This is why normal conversations and gunfire can both be reproduced in the same audio recording despite the fact that one of the sounds is over 100 dBA louder than the other.

The only way to accurately perceive the differences in sound levels is to hear them in person (with appropriate hearing protection). Short of that, if the Virginian-Pilot wanted to accurately convey differences in sound level, using commonly occurring sounds can be helpful.

For example, a suppressed pistol at over 130 dBA is louder than the maximum sound level of a jackhammer. Not exactly quiet and nothing like a nail gun.

Courtesy NRA

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103 COMMENTS

  1. Strange, everybody in the immediate vicinity thought it was gunfire. Perhaps Mr. Chipman has never actually heard gunfire on person.

      • My suppressed .22 fires almost silently. Just a click followed by a thump of bullet hitting target.

        With my thumb preventing the bolt from cycling, nobody would notice the gun firing even if standing next to me.

        • Go ahead, feed the anti-gun argument with your untimely comment. We are all talking about a .45 pistol and suppressor you freakin’ idiot. I own many suppressors and they are all smarter than you.

        • LilJoe, you are right, in that We ALL should consider having our hearing check. Some of us don’t know how bad it is and how much worse it will get. I’m sure most of us have shot w/o ear pro by mistake. At indoor ranges, I will don double ear pro when someone pulls out an AR pistol with a muzzle brake or a hand cannon.

        • @ bottlerocket and spillway.

          I’ve shot 22 shorts (not even 22 lr) out of a suppressed rifle, you can still hear it, it may not sound like an unsuppressed rifle firing (duh)… but you can hear more than just the bolt cycling 🙂

          I’m not going to argue with your experience, but I would encourage you to get your hearing checked.

        • It’s odd when I fire my S&W M&P 15-22 (unsuppressed) with headphone-type hearing protectors. It makes a shuffling sound instead of a bang. It would be pretty quiet with a suppressor.

        • That’s just so damn interesting. Now, you may have noticed – but probably not, that the gun in question is a .45. Now, why don’t you tell us if you floss regularly.

        • So what. .22 is incredibly weak. I’m pretty sure a madman in average shape would be more effective in mass murder with a knife then a .22. See the mass stabbings in Asia as an example.

        • Subsonic .22 with a good suppressor are very, very quiet. The cycle WOULD be the loudest part of the firing… although I daresay I wouldn’t call it actually “silent.”

    • I saw a few people say it sounded like a nail gun and they thought it was a nail gun because construction was planned for the building. Eventually they started to hear popping, which is probably both the suppressor starting to get dirty and the cops firing. It was loud to the people in the building, but they didn’t know what that particular sound was, so they associated it with the closest thing in their minds which was a nail gun.

      Some workers in the building came out to check what was going on. They thought it was construction or an active shooter drill. A couple of them ran into the gunman as he was going up and down the three floors. One of those people told him to stop it [stop shooting people]. They saw him carrying his .45 and a suppressor was attached. The gunman left those particular people alone then went to kill a supervisor.

      The sound of a suppressed handgun is like an air gun or nail gun but much louder. It has a pressurized sound to it more than an explosive sound. Although at some point if you put a lot of rounds through it the sound changes and it starts shooting flames.

      • Here’s the way I look at it. I hear gun fire all the time, but the truth is that I live in an area with a lot of construction and industrial things going on (plus the sheriff’s range, no telling when the deputies are going to spend an afternoon playing with their ARs on our dime.) What we hear is based on our own biases. People who live in a little safety bubble where nothing could ever go wrong would be expecting to hear construction and not gun fire. When it turns out they were wrong, it couldn’t be their fault! It must be those damn silencers!!

      • People going on about how some people in the building thought it was a nailgun, and ignoring the dozens of accounts from other indoor and outdoor shootings where people thought ‘fireworks’ or ‘nailgun’ or whatever else when a regular unsuppressed weapon was used, because nobody wants to believe that someone is shooting in their vicinity.

    • Before such things became extremely politically incorrect, and probably illegal, Carnival shooting galleries used real rifles that fired .22 short, WITHOUT SUPPRESSORS.

      Millions of people (maybe more) paid for the chance to lose their money and NONE wore ear protection.

      Even the most robust nail guns used for setting things in concrete only use .22 short blanks, I believe. Standard nails guns for construction use electro-mechanical force.

      Either way, it’s a long way from that to a suppressed .45 cal.

    • let’s be honest though. Suppressed firearms do sound “like” nailguns. I have shot plenty and stood next to plenty while they were shot. Manual actions and semi-autos, various calibers. So everybody is right. Suppressed firearms sound like really freaking loud nail guns.

      None of this matters. Chipman was an anti-gun tyrant, and regardless of whether suppressors are super-quiet Hollywood assassin tools, we have a right to keep them and the government has no right to deny us.

      This ridiculous game the pro-gun community plays where we pretend guns are for hunting, or that they “aren’t for killing people” or somehow not that effective is nonsense. it’s shifting the Overton window.

      Your damned right my AR15 dramatically improves my ability to kill. That’s exactly what guns are for, making it easier to kill. And it’s my right as a human being to improve that ability to do so, through whatever methods or tools I deem to use, as a check on tyanny, to protect myself and my family, and to provide, so long as I have not forfeited my God given human rights through my own actions and had my rights seized through due process.

      Anyone that says otherwise is a petty tyrant, a coward, a boot licker, and deeply anti-human and anti-liberty. Those who would sacrifice liberty on the altar of security will receive neither and would drag the rest of us into their gruesome hell.

      The only form of security which should ever be collectivised and administered by the state is national security ogainst foreign actors, and even that must be rigorously subjugated to the will of the people.

  2. This is one of those things where I feel like anyone who makes that sort of claim needs to be invited to stand next to me while I fire my suppressed pistol at an otherwise quiet range… …without hearing protection.

    It’s such a simple, easy, fast, and un-deniable thing to prove, anyone who claims they go “pffft” like in movies is either completely uninformed or lying. Either way, not fit for wielding power or influence over others.

    • It will be “PFFT” to people 100 meters away, assuming the rifle is fed sub sonic ammo and the can isn’t junk. Well, I describe it as being as loud as someone opening a fat can of monster next to you.

    • The Left might think it only goes “pffft” because their source is YouTube. When a GoPro or iPhone’s little microphone records the audio portion, it can only do so to the extent of its capabilities. So while a person standing ten feet away from you would hear a bona fide muzzle report (albeit suppressed), a YouTube vid would only allow a viewer at home to hear a diminished version. Hence the “pffft”.

      I always like watching gun scenes on TV shows (like S.W.A.T. or NCIS, etc.) and critiquing the sound effects, which are obviously added/manipulated by the editors for effect. My favorite is the common scene when someone pulls out their handgun and you hear the recognizable “click” of a hammer being cocked. Oh wait…that dude’s holding a Glock. Hmmm. Or when someone cycles a shotgun as they’re entering a hallway, then somehow cycles it again a minute later when they enter the next room, even though they haven’t fired a shell yet.

      To date so far in 2019, I’ve enjoyed the privilege of taking three newbies (separate trips) to the range to introduce them to the joy of shooting. I start them off with a short safety lesson and the “Four Rules”, then a .22LR pistol, then a 9mm, then a .357 revolver, and then a full-length 12-ga for clays. Every time, my guests start off a bit nervous, but end the day loving it and asking to please come back again in the future. And *EVERY* one of them notices how the muzzle reports are far louder than they were expecting, mostly because the only thing they previously knew was what they’d seen on TV.

      • I’m always amused when, in a movie or on TV, they have an indoor gunfight without hearing protection and have a conversation right after…

      • I love movies that do the click-clack noise of racking a shotgun whenever someone picks up a gun. Then when lift the gun point it they click-clack again. Then when they walk into the next scene they click-clack again. It’s like the guns are broken and any movement on the part of the person makes the broken parts bang together.

  4. He was BATF, which makes it predictable that he would not actually know about firearms.

  5. You expect people who know nothing about guns and power tools to be able the tell the difference between them??

  6. Probably would if you used a Half Load Cartridge. The German 98k Mauser using a HUB-23 Suppressor and Special 7.92×57 Cartridges with only 0.55-grains of propellant. And produced only 38dB sound…

    • And a suppressed Thompson .22 target pistol makes the most noise when you reload.

      Neither is relevant to what the murderer used, however, and how his pistol sounded.

      • Depends on what you’re willing to Trade Off? The “Sound” or the “Range”! The Suppressed 98k Mauser could still reach out too 300-meters. I suspect it the .45 APC had a Longer Barrel too, it would have the Reach required…

    • Do you reload? 0.55 grains of propellant is barely anything in the pan. All that that much propellant would do is get the bullet stuck in the chamber.
      30dB? Questionable. Ambient noise being outside with a slight wind is often 40+ dB. I have a Ruger Precision Bolt rifle in .308 with a top of the line Rugged Surge in full configuration and have subsonic ammunition for it that still meters around 115 db to the side of the muzzle. If correct you have stumbled on the Holy Grail of a suppressor/ammunition combination.
      300 meters?? I have to shoot my .308 with 26 MOA of elevation to even get a semblance of a grouping at 100 meters. My rifle/ammunition/Vortex scope combination doesn’t have enough accuracy or energy to accurately put rounds consistently in a tight group on a five foot diameter gong we have at 300 meters.
      Please share your source.

      • As I said before, what the Trade Off you’re willing to settle for, Range or Sound. IF you’re inside a Building, then Range really isn’t much of a Factor. But Sound with reverberate off of virtually any Flat Surface and be heard by virtually everyone…

      • George
        I would think Leslie is confusing grams with grains as the Germans used grams for their loading manual. Both are abbreviated as gr.

        0.55 grams is about 8.5 grains which is probably right for a quarter load as most loads for 8 mm as similar to 30-06 in the 45 to 55 grain range.

    • Would .55 grains of powder, barely more than half a grain, even ignite? If it did, would the bullet move at all? Sounds like a recipe for a “squib” party to me!

  7. The way I’ve always described it to people was that, aside from a small handful of specialized weapons, suppressors really only take a gunshot from “hearing damage loud” down to a “wow that was loud” level.

    • Depends on distance, caliber, load being used. A bolt action 22 with sub sonic ammo is pretty quiet with a good can. It definitely cuts down on the volume if you are 100 meters away.

    • I suppose it depends on definitions. I have a 9″ .300 blk SBR with AAC suppressor. Firing 220g subs, it does not approach needing ear pro while behind the trigger. In front of or beside the muzzle it is much louder, but plugs will still suffice. And before you say I’m all wrong, remember that I have done it. Have you?

  8. I’m still not buying the silencer aspect of the story. There hasnt been any evidence of one and even in the absence of evidence the media is all too happy to beat any anomaly in one of these events to death. There should be crude blow-out diagrams of suppressors in the NYT, the TV personalities should be parading them around like hi-cap Gregory, showing clips of Don Jr. shooting one to highlight what an evil man he is. I know, the black Democrat doesn’t fit their narrative but that should be all the more reason to be hammering SILENCER, SILENCER, SILENCER every chance they get.

    But they’re not so something is amiss.

    • If there was security video being recorded inside, it should show it.

      Otherwise, let’s not dive into ‘truther’ territory quite yet, mm ‘kay?

      • I know in the gov offices I work in have cameras everywhere, outside and inside.

        Bet the city buildings did to.

    • The media doesn’t want to focus on the silencer because it would underscore the fact that this Black Muslim has passed all the additional background checks to buy the silencer.

      • I have seen people say he was Christian then say he was Muslim.

        If he was a Muslim terrorist why didn’t he say “God is greater” before shooting Americans he worked with for 15 years? Why didn’t he change his name to fit with Islam like other people that convert? Why did he stay in the military for 6 years before working for the government 15 more years? Why did he not shoot 3 white men he ran into during his murdering spree before he walked off to kill a black man who is a supervisor?

        They didn’t hide the San Bernardino, Dallas and Pulse Nightclub shootings done by Muslims that were not white. They didn’t hide the Virginia Tech shooting done by a Korean-American. They didn’t hide the Parkland shooting done by a Jewish-American who was adopted by Hispanic people. They didn’t hide the shooting that was done at a e-sports tournament during a live stream by a Jewish-American.

        Do you listen to Alex Jones? I wouldn’t be surprised if Alexander is putting out that narrative to make his followers look bad, he did that after the Mandalay Bay shooting. He also put out a false narrative after Sandy Hook to make his followers ruin their reputations.

        • Some sites have an old picture of him (current pictures seems to have been wiped out, also YouTube videos have been censored – again, if there’s nothing to hide, why the censorship?). He is Black, according to the old picture. Don’t know if he changed that recently… He is a long time city employee, listed as Engineer III and a Project Manager. He is also semi-literate, judging by the grammatical errors in his resignation letter. That makes him 99% a Democrat. There have been snippets on the Internet that he was a Muslim, but nothing reliable yet. Snopes took on this subject and stated that it could not be determined, so far, whether he was or was not. So, the religion information may be incorrect. The rest – spot on. Also, there have been plenty of precedents when Muslims killed without screaming Allah Akbar!
          https://heavy.com/news/2019/05/dewayne-craddock/

    • So what type of ammo was the killer REALLY using with his suppressor? Subsonic, +P, or something in between?
      Asking friend.

      • Well, most, if not all .45ACP is sub-sonic, +P or not…there are exceptions, but they are a very narrow band, generally, the lighter the projectile, the closer you get to being super-sonic, but then you start to lose the kinetic energy that’s associated with the .45ACP…fake cans will do little or nothing to abate the sound energy, other than directing it more forward…

  11. Suppression doesn’t matter. Read the aftermath reports on any of these spree shootings, or even just the witness comments to the media immediately afterward. They always say the commotion sounded like a car backfiring (do cars today still backfire?), or construction work, or an accident. Nobody thinks or allows themselves to think they’re in the midst of the unthinkable until they see the shooter, blood or bodies. Banning suppressors is just another infringement masquerading as a safety measure. It’s just more political agenda advancement by exploiting a tragedy.

    • Exactly. John doe has never heard a suppressed weapon before and will equate it to the first concept he already knows. The human brain essentially asks its self: That off profile sound I just heard, is that a hammer? construction? equipment? air compressor? someone beating on something?

      I’m used to hearing shooting ever other day and a hammer pounding nails into wood may sound like gunshots if you are a fair distance away. Ramming T-stakes into the ground also sounds like gunfire. I have never heard a suppressed pistol before so I can’t say what I would identify it as if I heard it but I doubt it would be “Thats a .45 with a can on it!” Though I have my suspicions that someone is using one locally once in a while.

  12. A silenced AR15 from 100, 150 meters to me sounds like someone opening a big can of monster. I had never heard suppressed fire before and it would not have been immediately apparent to me that someone was shooting if I didn’t know beforehand that someone was playing with their toys on one of the ranges. Once the profile is in your memory then yeah, its easy to identify it.

    We got an anti-gunner saying sound profiles change with suppressors. This just in from the land of DUH, of course it changes the profile. Cans also makes shooting, nominally easier on the ears. If I wanted something that looks cool but wasn’t practical, I’d get a faux silencer. To someone who has never heard silenced weapons before and all they have to go on is hollywood, it could be dismissed as machinery.

    My biggest gripe here is that TTAG trying to compare sound profiles to the decibel scale. The volume of a sound and its signature / profile are two very different things. Apples and oranges, its deceptive and misleading to people new to guns and those that don’t know any better.

    I imagine there aren’t too many people that will confuse the mechanical grinding and pounding of a jackhammer with a pistol, even though its on par in loudness. A nail gun, possibly tools powered by compressed air, a slipped hose, etc. You can’t expect someone that has never heard an uncommon sound before to automatically know what it is. People will compare it to what they already know.

    OT but relevant: Shit, Riding in a helicopter sounds like having a buzz saw shoved in each ear and so damn loud you can barely hear yourself yelling at the person seated next to you. John doe public has quite a different concept in mind when they think about it, likely sound insulated like their car. I wonder who will give harp on me for equating a helo to putting my ear next to a running an exceptionally loud circular saw.

    • A buddy let me shoot his AR in .300 BLK (not suppressed) a few months ago. The difference in muzzle report between 220g subsonic and 120g supersonic factory Remington loads was astonishing. Even with electronic earmuffs, the supersonic report made everyone around me jump the first time I fired it.

      • Yep, this is why I have an 80% in line to become a 300BLK… uhh… pistol, yeah its a pistol. XD!

    • Hokay, I use the same can for 9″ .300 blk sub and super, 16″ and 20″ 5.56 AR-15, and 16″ 7.62 NATO AR-10. The 7.62 NATO (.308) is the only one which seems loud with the can. YMMV.

  13. tdiinva is correct. I heard a couple of interviewees say they hear gunfire. But we know how logical the governor is, re after birth “abortions”. Typical leftist though, tell lies that only they and the really ignorant believe, like the guy a few years ago who told he didn’t think it was right that someone could just walk into a gunshop and buy a machine gun. He wouldn’t believe different until I called the state police and they read him the law. And he did own guns.

  14. Side note other sounds trigger an incident in cities were they have gun shot listening surveillance equipment. Sounds like tractor trailer Jake breaks , nail guns , jack hammers etc.

  15. this is a prime example of the hollywierd bullshit over-riding common sense. the word silencer–is totally different from suppressor . the use of a supressor is common in a shooting range or place where other individuals may NOT have adequate ear protection. A SUPPRESSOR STOPS THE SHARP CRACK OF THE ROUND GOING OFF. it will not silence the shot . a silencer ,only with reduced load ammunition can silence a shot , and only a few rounds are silenced, the more shots fired the louder the sound gets. SO DO NOT BELIEVE THE CRAP THAT HOLLYWIERD DUMPS ON THE GULLIBLE FOOLS THAT WATCH THEIR GARBAGE.

    • Robert, I believe that the suppressor reduces the “boom” of the expanding gasses, not the “crack” of the bullet breaking the sound barrier.

      Either way, the “pfttt” of silencers in media is clearly incorrect.

  16. What bothers me about all of this is the TIMING. Suppressors have been around for at least 115 years and this has been the first time that I’ve ever heard of a mass shooter using one. Now “coincidently” more and more companies are starting to manufacture them and the Congress was looking more favorably towards them and not thinking that they are just simply being used by hired killers, and then this happens. Maybe I’m being a little paranoid but it doesn’t take a lot to think that some government types had some sort of role in all this to prevent wide spread use by the civilian population.

    • A part of me wonders if this is all part of Trump’s longer-term plan for the 2020 election. He tosses the Left a bone in the form of an impromptu bump stock ban, and mentions his possible support for doing the same for suppressors. But then, sometime early next year, he claims he was wrong, and directs the ATF to reverse those decisions and allow them again. Such is the danger of a single person creating orders via fiat.

      He’s doing the same thing with the trade talks with Mexico and China. If he plays tough now and drags us through the (unfortunately necessary) step of dragging America through the mud, he’s giving himself plenty of time to come out of the tunnel with a trade deal in time to see the economy and markets rebound. Then he can coast into a 2020 win.

      Dunno…just my two cents’ worth on the suppressor matter. I think he might be playing 3D chess with all of this. I sure hope so, anyway.

      • I have always believed, perhaps naively and too hopefully, that Trump carefully threw out the bump stock order in the way he did because it is illegal, he has no right to do so and knows it will be eventually reversed.
        Now he makes negative comments about metallic items that are regulated possibly as much a weapons grade uranium. His son or son-in-law is the guy that has suppressors, is by his own admission on his FB page an outdoors-man and I’ve seen in videos chatting with the folks at Silencerco.
        One would think he has daddy’s ear about gun things in general.
        No, I don’t smoke crack… I just want to believe that voting for Donald was not a mistake… not like I had a choice anyway… It’s all dep[ressing.

      • I think you might be right. I have wondered if perhaps he isn’t doing exactly just as you suggested. He gets the anti’s to think he is on their side by reducing our rights, and therefore maybe gets them on his side for the next election. And then he boasts ” look at what I did to reduce gun violence .”

        But I wouldn’t completely dismiss the possibility of Soros, Bloomberg, or some other ultra-rich anti from financing one of these “tragic mass shootings .” After all, the shooter will probably end up with “3 hots and a cot ” for the rest of his life, so there are probably some losers out there who would be happy to have his name immortalized by his actions.

        • Three hots and a cot? In this State , by law, it’s only required one hot meal a day, could be breakfast, lunch or dinner. And cots, no there’s no law requiring a cot. If the jail is over capacity most wind up sleeping on the floor. , , , , , Years ago a fellow remarked, ” They throw me in a cage, treat me like an animal, and expect me not to become one”.

        • You become one, we shoot you like one. Pretty simple. The idea that as an unrepentant asshole who kills without thinking, we owe you something, you are right, we do. And I will pay you just as soon as I am allowed to. Or when no one is looking.

    • Congress is not doing anything with suppressors. The hearing protection act is DEAD as a doorknob and if someone wanted to make up a conspiracy they would have done it when there was some chance that congress could move on it because every single branch was in control of the GOP.

    • I have not seen any evidence that a suppressor was used, can’t imagine why the turd would use one, and what the police say on the subject of an item (suppressor) with which they have absolutely zero experience does not impress me at all. Have an expert test the pistol/”suppressor” combination and let me know whether it’s real.

  17. the information on recording is incorrect. unless you have some type or auto-gain on, if you record a suppressed firearm and a nail gun using the same mic same setup same distance and then listen to the resulting audio file without adjustments, you will hear the difference in volume level.the problem is, most cell phone cameras and a lot of news camera have automatic gain boosting.

    • Horse manure. If you use recording equipment to record a .22 LR, a .38 Spl, a .357 Magnum, and a .458 H & H magnum elephant gun, from 3 feet away, all will be very close to the same, due to the upper limit of the recording and reproducing equipment closing off the actual volume. Go out and actually LISTEN to those rounds going off, then spout that bullshit to me. In open air, there is NO upper limit.

      Auto gain has nothing to do with it, a gunshot exceeds any limits of recording capability.

  18. Suppressors may not trigger the noise monitors that are eventually going to be sitting next to every camera on a corner. Big Brother reality

  19. I’d wager that there was loud, screaming, scared-to-death mayhem in there.
    Not that it was like a library with a mere “pfft” interrupting the silence, from time to time.

  20. Maybe not a pistol, but a suppressed 45 grease gun is absolutely as quiet (probably less) than a nail gun. Less recoil, too.

    We’re missing the point, though; there is nothing whatsoever in the constitution or history that says weapons have to be sufficiently ‘loud’ to be our legal right. Concede that point, and we’re right back to the nonsensical baloney of “legitimate” gun use being discrete, while simultaneously concealed carry is indicative of ‘nefarious intent.’

    The anti’s don’t want guns to be noticeable, and they don’t want them hidden, either; they purely & simply don’t want them to exist, and that’s all there is to it.

    • I honestly can’t wait till the next technology comes out. What if it’s something that simply is a glove placed on your hand that emits waves silently and totally annihilates an entire human to a pink mist and anyone else in its path for a couple hundred feet… Then, I’ll bet guns will be really useful.

    • Dunno what you think you’re talking about, but what I know as a “.45 grease gun” (I owned one once) fired from an open bolt through a 3″ barrel, more db came out of the action than from a nail gun (would not be affected by a suppressor), whole firearm cost around $3, total piece of shit, no recoil because no power. IOW, bullshit.

  21. Leftards tend to be mental morons,truth and facts do not enter in to the picture when it comes to their Feelz which detaches them from all reality.

  22. You know, I’ll be honest. I get the confusion from people who didn’t know and weren’t thinking about someone running and gunning… But they are using to illustrate that it somehow sounds nothing like a firearm, and that is naive and typical of gun grabbers. The fact is, had someone been concealing, that investigation of loud pops be it a nail gun or firearm, would have been handled much better than hiding in a room with the door locked. None of this changes the other fact, that the tool used has nothing to do with it. Had it been a suppressed AR, they would still push the same shit, and I’m certain that db level goes up a notch from a handgun.

    Basically, gun grabbers gonna try to grab guns. Stand your ground. Shall not be infringed.

    • BD, the sound signature is only changed because the AR-15 is firing supersonic ammo, which sounds like you are right beside the muzzle when the bullet passes you 1000 yards away, trust me, I’ve been there. As a safety officer, I had a 15-year old girl absolutely refuse to put in earplugs, she thought we were all pranking her, her first time in the 1000 yard pits at Camp Perry National Matches. After the first 10 rounds came through for each of 50 shooters, she was BEGGING for some earplugs. And that is with a big, concrete wall and a bunch of dirt between her and the rifles. It is difficult to experience that safely, but if you don’t believe me it can be done. If the shooters had all been using suppressors, the sound levels would not have changed at all (from deafening).

      Pay attention, now, guys, here comes some Truth About Guns. Sonic boom from supersonic ammo travels forward from the muzzle. If you are firing a suppressed firearm in the open, behind the trigger is relatively quiet, regardless of ammo. If Ammo is supersonic, in FRONT of the muzzle is loud enough to fry your brain. But indoors, that sonic boom will come right back at you from the far wall, still requires serious ear pro. If you think about it, you can figure it out, so long as you understand that a teensy 55g projectile coming past your unprotected ear while supersonic can instantly cause permanent hearing damage. Because it can!

  24. A suppressor takes the sharp super-sonic peak off the bang. The rest of the bang is still there and sounds like a gun went off.

    I suppose, I mean I imagine, that if a suppressor were made much larger and longer it could absorb much more of the muzzle blast. The problem would be the size and weight of the thing, very impractical.

    • “A suppressor takes the sharp super-sonic peak off the bang. The rest of the bang is still there and sounds like a gun went off.”

      No. Sorry, it’s the other way around. If you shoot supersonic ammo, supressor will muffle the gun report, but the sharp and still very loud crack will remain.
      Slow ammo shot doesn’t have any supersonic ‘peak’ so with high pressure gases escaping from the muzzle muffled, it can be much quieter and can sound different from unsupressed gun shot.

  25. I hope the NRA don’t ask congress to review their position on suppressors.

  26. Seems to me, we have a whole lot of people who do not own suppressors telling us about how they work.

  27. I got a Bostich nail gun re-chambered for 10 penny nails. When she calls out she sounds as loud as a .45 ACP going off. It is up there along with my pressure washer that sounds like a Pratt & Whitney turbine shrieking out.
    My favorite of all is my cell phone ring tone that is a recording of a .50BMG blasting away. Nothing is funnier than seeing people in their Sunday best dropping to the mud whenever I get a call.

  28. I live an area where there is constant construction. I just got my .45 kac for my HK;I fired it dry in the back yard with extreme defender, RIP, and a hollow point and I could not tell the difference between a nail gun and my .45.

    • Which begs the question: “Why is somebody suddenly using a nail gun in this office? Golly, how curious, should I bother looking?”

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