Silencer Central: We Support the Hearing Protection Act and Have Never Lobbied Against It

You may hunt, and you may know how to field dress and break down the critters you harvest, but that doesn’t mean you have the stomach for how the sausage is made in Washington. Few of us do. It’s it’s dirty, it stinks, and it’s never pretty.

Many of us in the gun community have been following the progress of the Hearing Protection Act in the House Ways and Means committee this week. We all wanted to see suppressors de-listed from the National Firearms Act. That would mean you’d no longer have to complete a Form 4, submit fingerprints, pay a $200 tax, and wait for FBI approval to buy one. Never mind the fact that your silencer would then be registered with the feds.

The HPA, however, ran up against the usual objections from some of the usual suspects. Yes, the GOP may control both houses of Congress, but they’re not called The Stupid Party for nothing. And then there’s the tendency of some of them to be less than reliable in terms of sticking together and plenty of them caring far too much about what’s said about them in the media.

In short, from what we’ve heard, the HPA simply wasn’t going to make it out of committee, let alone make into the Big Beautiful Bill that President Trump has been hoping to sign into law. So the decision was made to take what they could, do the next best thing, and zero out the cost of the tax stamp that’s mandated by the NFA. While that’s not ideal, it would significantly lower the cost of buying a can and open up suppressor ownership to more people.

The move to eliminate the cost of the tax stamp would also make the measure more likely the to survive the sausage-making process in the Senate. That’s because, in order to allow it to pass there with only a simple majority vote, the bill has to be eligible for “reconciliation.” That means it has to address changes in spending, revenue, or the debt limit in conjunction with a budget resolution.

Cutting the tax stamp fee from $200 to zero qualifies for reconciliation. But pulling suppressors out of the NFA entirely may very well not qualify and could provoke a challenge under something called the Byrd rule.

That’s probably a lot more than you ever wanted to know about the federal budget process, but that’s the reality the bill’s backers have been dealing with. And, given the times we live in and the endemic lack of trust that the government and so many institutions have deservedly earned in the last two or three decades, some in the gun community thought they smelled a rat.

Word began to spread in YouTube videos and on social media that a gun industry company had been lobbying against passage of the HPA. And Silencer Central was fingered as being that company.

Once that started to spread, the company’s CEO, Brandon Maddox, had this to say . . .

Silencer Central is closely monitoring the ongoing congressional hearings surrounding the Hearing Protection Act (HPA). We have always been vocal supporters of the HPA, as well as the current proposed provision of a $0 tax stamp. Our priority has always been, and will continue to be, advocating for deregulation and 2nd amendment rights, while supporting any win we can get for our customers regarding their firearm and accessory ownership rights along the way. Regardless of the ever-changing regulatory landscape, we remain focused on delivering exceptional service and standing by the community we’re proud to be part of.

As Maddox told us, not only is Silencer Central a distributor of suppressors from a variety of makers, they’re also one of the biggest suppressor manufacturers in the business under their BANISH brand. He said they stand to sell a lot more silencers to a lot more people if the HPA passes and cans are de-listed under the NFA.

The company’s statement, however, didn’t seem to calm things down. As word continued to spread that Silencer Central was allegedly working against HPA passage, things only got more heated. Maddox tells us that people have been calling into the company’s customer service lines with death threats.

The company then issued this statement . . .

In short, Silencer Central tells us they’ve never worked against passage of the HPA. They would be far better off, they tell us, if suppressors no longer fell under the hated National Firearms Act. But given the realities of the legislative process and the current makeup of Congress, the HPA was considered a non-starter. So the decision was made to take the next best option and, in effect, eliminate the tax stamp.

We’ll be watching the bill’s progress over the coming days. Watch this space.