Washington Post Runs Great Takedown of Anti-Silencer Propaganda

I’m a little late on this, but it’s one of those miraculous and wonderful links that you just have to see to believe. I’m talking about a gun-related piece at a mainstream newspaper that has actual facts and information in it, as opposed to scaremongering nonsense.

The Washington Post entitled “Are firearms with a silencer ‘quiet’?” is a solid rejoinder to some of the anti-suppressor propaganda making the rounds as a result of the HPA.

So what are opponents of the law talking about?

“We aren’t necessarily talking about being out in the middle of the woods deer hunting where it is extremely quiet. Instead, gun crimes often occur in cities and in other very noisy places,” said Marc Brumer, a Gillibrand spokesman. “The shots would be heard by law enforcement or witnesses at the gun’s typical decibel level, but they often cannot be heard when a silencer is added. There are many sounds in cities that are far louder than a gunshot masked by a silencer.”

A nightclub, he noted, has a sound level of 155 decibels, while a subway is 102 decibels. (Actually, while sound levels as high as 155 decibels have been detected in night clubs, that’s not an average and would be very damaging to a person’s hearing.)

“Relative to their normal decibel level, particularly in those urban environments where gun crime often occurs, I outlined in previous email, silencers make guns impossible to hear over many common sounds and therefore ‘quiet,’ ” Brumer said.

But gun experts say that noises are not equal. “While these items/instruments/environments may be louder or as loud as firearms, none carry with them the easily recognizable sonic pulse of a gunshot,” said Bob Owens, editor of Bearing Arms, which advocates for expanded gun rights.

Peters pointed to a 2013 article in The Washington Post that said the ShotSpotter detection system may have trouble detecting shots fired from a silencer. But ShotSpotter says that information is out of date.

Read the whole thing, and pass it around to your friends to share. It’s not often that you see this kind of real reporting on a gun issue, so savor it and reward the Post with what they want most: clicks.