Suppressor Sales Are Booming and Here's Why

Suppressor sales are surging like never before, and it's not a coincidence. Jeff breaks down the three key factors driving the boom — from dramatically faster ATF approvals to falling prices and growing hunter adoption. If you've ever thought about buying a suppressor, this episode explains why now might be the best time to pull the trigger.

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Transcript

0:14

Welcome to the Live to Shoot podcast. I'm Jeff Dowd, and I've been a licensed firearm dealer for the last 18 years, and this podcast will talk about all things related to the segment, anything else going on in the world, sports story, or anything else I find interesting. So welcome, welcome, welcome. Hope everybody's doing well out there. So today I wanted to talk about something that's been catching a lot of attention lately, and honestly, it's something I've been watching closely as, as a dealer myself. Suppressor sales are exploding right now, and I mean exploding. I'm seeing it personally. I'm getting transfers in, requests in, 10 times more than I've ever had before. We're seeing a massive surge in suppressor purchases across the country, and it's not happening by accident. There's some specific reasons why it's going on, and I wanted to talk through those because I think it matters for a lot of our listeners. So let's start with the basics for anybody who might not be totally up to speed. Suppressor, sometimes called a silencer, is a device that attaches to the muzzle of your firearm and reduces the sound of the gunshot. Now, let me be straight. Despite, you know, what Hollywood shows and would have you believe, a suppressor does not make your gun whisper quiet like some spy movie. It reduces the decibel level. Think of it more like a muffler on your car. Your car still makes a noise. It's not just blowing out your eardrums, though. And that's really the point. Suppressors are a hearing safety device more than anything else. They protect your hearing, they reduce noise pollution, and they make shooting a more pleasant experience for everybody, including your neighbors, if you're shooting on rural land. Now, historically, buying a suppressor has been a real pain. They're regulated under the National Firearms Act, the NFA, which it was passed back in 1934. That means to buy one, you had to fill out a bunch of special paperwork, submit photographs, get fingerpinter-- fingerprinted, pay $200 tax stamp, and then wait. And the wait has always been the killer. When I was first started doing this I had 18 months got down to a year very long time. So you'd just buy it, and then you'd wait, often just forget about it, in fact. Um, I've got a couple suppressors. I have not been able to get the people back in c-- to contact them and I, I suspect they've passed away or something happened in the 12 to s- 14 months that I had it. But all that, you're just waiting on the ATF to process your Form 4 and approve the transfer, and it's brutal. It's turned a lot of people off from even bothering. So what changed? Well, a few things have come together at a time to create the perfect storm. First, the ATF rolled out their n- a new eForm system. They tried the eForms gosh, I can't even remember back, 2017 maybe it might have been, and it failed miserably. When the f- the brief period of, of, of that it was out, it was great. You could re- turnaround times were gre- greatly improved, but the system could not handle the load, and it just continued to crash. So they canned it for Form 4s, the big volume And went back to paper forms. But now they, they came out a few years back with a n- a new version and this has drastically cut down on approval times. We're talking, this sh- you know, this year, you know, weeks at the most for a, uh, an approval, a couple weeks. And when people hear that they can buy it and get it back quick, they're much more willing to buy one. So the, the market is responding exactly how you'd expect. Second, prices are down. People, you know, demand, supply, demand, capitalism, more people buying, more competition. Uh, there's more people coming out to, to, uh, with new technologies, and they're getting more innovative, and the prices are coming down. And the quality of suppressors are, are right now are, are going up, and they're not breaking your bank. Uh, you can buy into lower prices, faster turnarounds, and you've removed two of the bigger barriers. And then the third, you know, is, is a growing interest, you know, with hunters and those types. And finally, you know, the removal, which will happen at the beginning of the year, of the $200 tax stamp. Um, you get... That was a big barrier. Pay f- buy a, say a $400 suppressor, $500 suppressor, and then you add $200 tax stamp on it, just didn't make a lot of sense. And then that, even then prohibited the secondary market and all those kind of things. So you put all that together, faster cost, lower ap- approvals, no tax stamp, and you get sa- suppressor sales going through the roof. So what's it mean for you? Well, if you've been thinking about getting one, it's a good time to get one. Now supplies are, you know, I'm seeing a lot of people looking for things that aren't in stock because, you know, manufacturers are having trouble getting, uh, caught up to speed. But it's a good time. The process is simpler than it used to be. The wait times are shorter, and you've got a much more to- choices than ever you want. So, reach out to your dealers. Uh, you can contact me if you want. I can get some decent prices on suppressors. But the bigger bottom line and the bigger picture is, is what I want you to think about. The suppressor market proves something important. When you reduce government friction, when you streamline the bu- bureaucracy even a little bit, lawful commerce thrives. Law-abiding citizens step up and participate. This isn't about making it easier to do something dangerous. Suppressors are legal. In Europe, where you can't hardly even buy a gun, you can go into a gas station, a convenience store, and buy a suppressor, a hardware store. They're just ca- just, they're devices, uh, accessories there. They've always been legal. They're not illegal. Um, and, but the process has held people back. So the real story of so many Second Amendment issues, isn't it? It's not that the rights don't exist, it's that the process is made so burdensome, so slow, so expanse- expensive that people just give up. That's regulation as discouragement, and when you peel back even one layer of that, you see what happens. People exercise their rights. Now, I'd love to see the momentum keep going. There's still the Hearing Protection Act that's been floating around Congress for years that would remove suppressors from the NFA entirely and treat them like a regular firearm. No, no tax stamp, no special forms, just a background check. That would be a l- the logical next step. We're not there yet, but the fact that the market is booming, even under current regulations, tells you that demand is real, and it's not going away. So if you've been on the fence, do your research, find the right suppressor, get your Form 4 submitted, and you're gonna surprise how fast it comes back. Um, so if you found this interesting, uh, subscribe. If you got questions about, the, the form, the NFA process, message me, text me email me, contact information in the show notes, all those types of things. I can answer those questions for you, be happy to. Um, but we need more people understanding what's going on out there, how to do this, and so share this podcast. Get it out to people. I appreciate it. I'm Jeff Dowdle. This is Live To Shoot: Defending the Second Amendment. Stay informed, stay armed, and protect your hearing while you're at it. Talk to you next week