It sounds like the “brilliant” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) has watched a few too many Hollywood spy movies, because he literally thinks the only people who use silencers on firearms are “criminals” and “mass murderers.”
Blumenthal is the co-sponsor of the Help Empower Americans to Respond (HEAR) Act. The act’s proposal was written “in response to a mass shooter in Virginia Beach last month who used a silencer to help kill a dozen innocent people.”
The proposed bill was introduced by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and co-sponsored by Blumenthal, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.).
The rationale behind the bill, at least according to a press release earlier this week by Menendez, is that if the government bans silencers for all firearms, whenever there’s a public mass shooting attempt, people’s lives could be saved because they’d be able to hear the firearm better without the silencer.
For reference, here’s a video showing the difference in sound between “unsuppressed” and “suppressed” firearms:
Still pretty loud. It just sounds like some of the echo gets “suppressed.”
No matter, though. Blumenthal’s school of thought is that only “criminals” and “mass murderers” use silencers.
“The only people who could reasonably oppose a ban on gun silencers are criminals trying to avoid detection by law enforcement or mass murderers trying to hurt as many people as possible,” Blumenthal said, according to the press release from Menendez’s website. “Whether a firearm is being used in a mugging or a massacre, the sound of a gunshot is a warning that helps bystanders get to safety and allows law enforcement to track and apprehend the shooter.”
For context on why someone would ever use a silencer, watch below:
H/T: Reason