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Suppressors are commonsense safety devices. And yet there are those in government who would like to outlaw them for civilian use entirely.

Much of the military concern is about .50 sniper rifles. This is a weapon I was issued in the military, but I will no longer shoot one or be near someone shooting one unless it has a suppressor.

I can feel when something is affecting my brain. I imagine I am sensitive to it due to my existing injury. But .50 caliber rifles are not the only firearms that cause this effect for me.

I experience this when instructing or filming students who are shooting next to walls or in confined spaces, especially when the caliber is 5.56 with a 16″ or shorter barrel. The same is true when around a 16″ barreled .308, most severely with a brake or certain flash hiders.

I know people with Mausers or Mosin Nagants with short (as in 8″) barrels and I can be nowhere in proximity when they are fired. Magnum caliber rifles with muzzle brakes or various caliber rifles with certain brakes leave me feeling concussed.

One offender is very short AR-15s, which have widespread popularity. They are short, light, with low recoil, but shooting one is akin to having a flashbang go off in front of your face.

– Dylan Saunders in Can Shooting Cause Brain Damage? The Science, the Bad News, and the Solution

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35 COMMENTS

  1. You can be rest assured that anything that has to do with real public safety will not be adopted by our ruling class. Especially if it makes one of the anti freedom targets, ie gun ownership, easier and/safer to use.

    • Cripes, you are still spouting your anti-vaxx crap?

      Clue : No one here is interested in hearing your nattering nut-job conspiracy bullshit.

      (Fun! I’m off EDC shopping in the ‘Big City’ of Orlando today…) 🙂

      • You want to talk about it so much that you have to bring it up when he didn’t?
        And you’re complaining about you talking about it?

  3. “Common sense safety device.” Sure.
    My lady seems to prefer 5.56 or full .357 Mag… even indoors. She hasn’t had to learn any better. Hearing loss shouldn’t be the teacher.
    I prefer .45 ACP or 12 gauge. – Subsonic rounds seem to hurt less when it comes to muzzle blast.

  4. Just so you know, they’re not deregulating suppressors. More restrictions potentially but they’re not going to make things better for us.

    • ^^^^^^ Sad But True…..They are coming after everything.

      Once the big blue cities’ looming financial crisis’s erupt into full blown collapse, they will need a disarmed citizenry from which they can expropriate every asset and pension of tangible value. That expropriation would be difficult to do with an armed citizenry.

  6. The only way We will ever get Full and Complete 2A Rights is from the end of a Gun Barrel. Neither Republicans or Democrats will EVER agree on the issue. The courts are just as bad if not worse. With the Fake News Media being the worst of all. It has become just another divisive issue to use for fund raising and at Reelection time. Anything short of FOA will result in the same old gobbledygook. Our Forefathers realized this in time when dealing with the British Crown on a great number of issues. Even with FOA there is no guarantee of winning. As there were no guarantees in 1775. At least they decided to risk all for Freedom. Which was better than the slow death by a thousand cuts they were suffering at the time. Keep Your Powder Dry.

  7. It seems that the general public is happy with their current misinformation. I uploaded a video about suppressors a couple of years ago…not popular. Now, I could rant that it’s Youtube’s algorythm but it’s not just that. If people were really interested, they’d find it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFGIckYa-Ck&t=3s

    I hope to have my next suppressor-related video ready within a month. While I don’t expect it to get discovered, I do hope to enrich the pool of balanced information.

  9. I’m of the opinion that loosing off a few rounds of anything that causes a concussion wave is detrimental to your health and at a minimum, disorienting. Using a suppressed weapon with the right number and type of subsonic rounds could be an excellent choice for home defense, and in certain cases, superior to a defensive shotgun.
    I’ve had people drop artillery simulators near me during training and if you’re not expecting it, it can stun you for a few moments. Noise suppression is just common sense.

  10. It’s not just brains that are affected. Concussion of blasts by magnum calibers can trigger dizzy spells in me because of my Meiniere’s Syndrome. The damaged nerves in my ears can’t take it. I wear ear plugs and muffs on the range because of this.

  11. Suppressor technology has greatly advanced just like 3D printed guns. It’s doesn’t surprise me gun grabbers hate them. They are stupid on purpose.

    But it’s the NRA that has been the most important failure in this new technology for gun civil rights.

    I think the NRA doesn’t care about hearing protection, because the leadership lost it’s hearing decades ago.

    Because protecting your ears was not issue for the “greatest Generation”. I think they believe losing your hearing is no big deal.

    And I think that makes them anti gun safety. And that includes anyone else but doesn’t support the Hearing Protection Act and the deregulation of suppressors.

    It’s time to gun community to frame suppressors as a “health issue” to the General Public.

    The industry has already started to address this issue. You can purchase a cricket rifle for your young child with a threaded barrel.

  12. Wow. I have heard that thinking to much about being a victim can make you a……..victim aka snowflake Put your ear protection on and quit being a pussy

    • Don’t I see an article a week about law suits involving failed ear plugs issued by the Army

  13. Any other consumer product and these would be mandatory. I suffered a hearing loss from 30 plus years of exposure to firearms and explosive noises in government service. It shouldn’t be the cost of doing business.

    • You mean like motorcycles? How many states will fine you a weeks pay for not having sufficient noise suppression on your motorcycle? Isn’t interesting that the states with the worst restrictions on firearms suppressors are also among those most zealous about noisy motorcycles.

  14. Trump sent a letter to the supreme court not to hear Kettler vs US. He is anti gun as they come, hes just playing lip service sometimes to his ignorant base

  15. i purchased a ruger hawkeye singleshot in 256 mag caliber ,this is a very hot pistol with the round chambering in the barrel. shooting this hand-cannon is like standing in the close proximity of a 155 field piece. the muzzle-blast is actually painful even with high-quality hearing covers. this pistol should have a suppressor fixed to the bbl permanently. the anti’s need to think before they speak.the value of a suppressor with some of the target-weapons like the hawkeye and some of the thompson single shot target/hunting weapons is almost mandatory for safety of by-standers protection. COMMON SENSE SHOULD BE TAKEN INTO THE EQUATION BY THE REGULATORS OF SUPRESSORS/SILENCERS.

    • ” the anti’s need to think before they speak ”

      They do. And their response is gun bans solve the noise problem.

  17. There is a secret device known as “Shooting Muffs”. At our range they are mandatory even if someone is using a silencer. These devices called “shooting muffs” are so secret they have only been released about 125 years ago. The Far Right may learn about them in another 125 years.

    I might add the silencer issue is dead forever. The Republicans (great friends of gun owners) killed the bill and did not let it come up for a vote).

    The current craze to own a vetted silencer is resulting in many more being put into civilian hands. The recent mass murder nut case used one waking up the average American to the fact that they are now becoming quite common with the result being that now it is way more likely you will see more of them used in mass murders which will result in a call to confiscate and ban them permanently. The next President (which will be a Democrat) will probably do just that.

    • Vlad did you even read the article,? No you didn’t. How do muffs protect from concussions?

      • Vlad’s problem is, he hasn’t seen a ‘muff’ in so long, all he can do is whine and cry in TTAG like a petulant two-year-old that didn’t get his way.

        (John Wick would treat little ‘Vlad’ like he treated Iosef Tarasov…)

    • The next president will be a Democrat? Who, Crazy Uncle Joe? Fauxcahontas? Cory (Spartacus) Booker? Alfred E. Neuman (Buttigeig)? Bill Blah Blah De Blahsio? Or maybe Michelle will ride in and save the party from another shellacking. There aren’t enough drugs in the world to help you.

    • “I might add the silencer issue is dead forever. The Republicans (great friends of gun owners) killed the bill and did not let it come up for a vote).”

      Every once in a while you’re right about something.

  18. When all is said and done, I expect that many cases of PTS actually result from undiagnosed TBI. Concussive force can be insidious.

  19. Good article. For years I’ve been telling patients that the results of head bonks are cumulative. Even the NFL recently discovered that! Recently some countries have been inducing brain damage with radio frequency energy. I think we’ll realize the brain is more sensitive than we gave it credit for, and the skull, no matter how dense isn’t that much protection.

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