ATLANTA (AP) — Emboldened by the election of Donald Trump as president, the gun industry is renewing a push in Congress to ease restrictions on silencers, arguing that they help preserve the hearing of gun users.
Silencers have been regulated under the National Firearms Act since the 1930s, facing the same paperwork, $200 tax and background checks required to buy a machine gun.
A background check to buy most firearms must be completed within three days, or the sale automatically goes through. But the process for a silencer and weapons regulated under the NFA can take eight months or more.
Despite the barriers, nearly a million silencers are in circulation in the United States.