Why Do ATF Agents Need $5 Million of New Suppressors?

HUXWRX Flow suppressor silencer
Image: HUXWRX

Why do ATF agents need new suppressors for their ARs? No one was willing to answer this simple question, not the private company making the silencers and certainly not the ATF. However, ATF agents themselves were discussing the new silencers on a website they falsely believed was private. 

“We are getting new suppressors. They are currently being rolled out to the field,” one ATF agent wrote on the ATF Association Facebook page, which only allows current and former ATF personnel to join. 

Another commenter on the same page said the ATF’s new suppressors are made by HUXWRX, and that they are “upper lever” and “good cans.”  The new HUXWRX suppressors can cost from $1,200 to $1,300 a piece, according to the company’s website. 

HUXWRX didn’t want to talk either. Company staffers did not respond to messages left on their website, emails or messages left for their spokesperson. However, the ATF actually commented on the record, although it took a week for them to email one quote, and they didn’t say much. 

“We can confirm that suppressors were provided to qualifying agents in the Criminal Investigation Occupation Series 1811 for health and safety due to the extensive training and quarterly firearms qualifications they must complete. For operational purposes, ATF does not comment on specific firearms used nor the number of firearms held,” ATF’s Public Affairs Division said in an email. 

The ATF’s Criminal Investigation Occupation Series 1811 are agents “responsible for planning, conducting, and managing investigations related to alleged or suspected violations of federal criminal laws.” ATF would not say how many agents received the suppressors or why they’re even needed. 

“For operational purposes, we cannot provide any additional details,” the ATF said in a follow-up email. 

Several years ago, the FBI Hostage Rescue Team contracted with HUXWRX for an unknown number of suppressors. The contract, worth $4.9 million, was touted as the “largest law enforcement suppressor contract to date.”

“I personally want to thank the FBI and Ballistics Research Facility for running the most comprehensive suppressor down select ever executed by the United States Government,” Rick Elder, CEO of the HUXWRX, said in a press release. “The HUXWRX team is extremely proud to support the tip of the spear of Law Enforcement professionals within the United States of America.”

Takeaways

Heavily armed ATF personnel have created nothing but problems for the agency and especially the public. 

On March 19 of last year, ATF “operators” conducted an early morning raid of Bryan Malinowski’s home in West Little Rock. A gunfight ensued, which was directly caused by ATF’s poor choice of raid tactics. An ATF agent, who has never been named, shot Malinowski in the head with his carbine. Malinowski, a 53-year-old airport executive director with no prior criminal history, died of his wounds two days later. His family insists he didn’t know he was trading gunfire with federal agents. Instead, they say, he thought he was defending himself and his wife from armed home invaders.

Other victims of ATF’s raids have said they and their families were extremely terrified and believed they would be killed. Ask Mark Manley, Russell Fincher, Peter Brennan, David Schieferle or Patrick “Tate” Adamiak if you want more information.  

Fortunately, the Trump Administration seems very aware of ATF’s problems, especially when it comes to its budget. Two White House sources recently told Reuters that ATFs proposed fiscal 2026 budget would be its lowest since 2016. Meanwhile, a growing group of elected officials are calling for the ATF to be eliminated completely. 

The ATF has proven it can’t be trusted to carry out its normal duties. Far too many of its members view themselves as a high-speed SWAT team, rather than mere federal agents.  Hopefully, President Donald J. Trump will take away the ATF’s new suppressors and, if we’re lucky, their ARs and handguns will soon follow. 

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9 thoughts on “Why Do ATF Agents Need $5 Million of New Suppressors?”

    1. I thought most high-end suppressors were titanium or inconel now. Regardless, I have complaints about the ATF spending my tax dollars on suppressors. ATF should be a convenience store

  1. .40 cal Booger

    ” ‘ATF would not say how many agents received the suppressors or why they’re even needed. … ‘For operational purposes, ATF does not comment on specific firearms used nor the number of firearms held,’ ATF’s Public Affairs Division said in an email. ”

    ATF needs to start coming up with answers instead of dodging questions. “We the people…”, remember us ATF? We the people…” are essentially your bosses, we are the tax payers paying for those guns and suppressors and your salary, we have an actual legal and constitutionally-backed ‘right’ to know.

  2. “We can confirm that suppressors were provided…for health and safety…”

    Isn’t that the answer right there? They don’t want to damage their hearing when they take you out for making $50 bucks on a private firearm sale.

    1. .40 cal Booger

      “They don’t want to damage their hearing when they take you out for making $50 bucks on a private firearm sale.”

      Well, they say that money is not worth dying over. But the ATF will surely kill you, is prepared to kill you, wants to kill you, if you make a few bucks on a sale of your personal property firearm. If they didn’t want to kill you, wasn’t prepared to kill you, wasn’t wanting to kill you, over making a few bucks from sale of your personally owned property they would not send a fully armed tac team to your home to bust in the door.

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