January 1, 2026 saw the most significant change in access to items such as suppressors since the passage of the National Firearms Act (NFA) in 1934. The One Big Beautiful Bill reduced the $200 tax that is required for items listed under the NFA to zero dollars. This has opened the door for more legal strategy aimed at removing suppressors from the NFA or repealing the NFA entirely. This is because if there is no tax, there is no legal standing for the government to require registration. It violates the Second Amendment and exceeds Congress's authority.
All the valuable legal challenges aside, with the tax stamp for suppressor now zero, it begs a serious question: Should you consider buying a suppressor? Here are several reasons why it makes sense to own a suppressor.
1. Hearing Protection
If you own and shoot a firearm, odds are that you are going to use it—repeatedly. Most gun owners don’t want to damage or lose their hearing. Suppressors, especially when paired with subsonic ammo, create an environment that protects your hearing. It is NOT silent however. Depending on the firearm, your round, and if you’re shooting indoors, you will still need some degree of hearing protection.
If one were to go down the rabbit hole of cinema sound effects, they would likely find that the first instances of suppressors used in movies to "silence" a firearm played a big role in creating the perceived need to regulate them. Hollywood holds culpability for the current ignorance surrounding suppressors; it has a history of extreme lapses in factual portrayal of sound through a suppressor. And perhaps not coincidentally, the dates of the first notable suppressor use in movies was 1934 and 1935—yes, the same era the NFA was enacted.
While you still need hearing protection until you understand how loud your firearm, suppressor and ammo combination is, you will experience less “noise,” and that is better for your ears.
Sound is not just an auditory energy. It’s not something moving through air/space when we shoot a firearm. There are also conductive properties to sound, and they come into play when holding a firearm, especially a rifle or shotgun. Our bodies and bones conduct the sound and physical concussive force when a firearm is shot. A suppressor contains some of these forces from the gasses escaping as the gun cycles, and that offers not just a quieter perceived sound, but fewer concussive forces running through your body.
2. Learning with Firearms and Safely Teaching
Suppressors are great for instructing new shooters. It makes the overall shooting experience more enjoyable and creates a quieter, calmer learning environment. Suppressors make shooting a large firearm less intimidating.
For rifles, a suppressor makes follow up shots and watching your impact easier. A suppressor mitigates the concussive forces—recoil is not as violent—and it is easier to keep looking through your optic and watch for your impact. For hunters and long-range competitors, it’s very helpful to see the impact (or miss) and be able to make a correction.
3. Hunting and Enclosed Spaces
Many people hunt without hearing protection. This is not a great idea in an enclosed blind, and especially with larger calibers. Hunters want to hear what is happening around them, especially while in areas with predators (or dangerous game, like bear). A suppressor and the right ammo lower the amount of potential hearing damage. Imagine this scenario: You’re hunting a bear and you know there is one in the area. You want to be ready to shoot, but you also don’t want to miss hearing a bear and getting surprised. A suppressor is just a smart tool to have on your firearm.
4. Politeness
Some of Teddy Roosevelt’s firearms are on display at the NRA Firearms Museum at NRA Headquarters in Farfax, Virginia. One is a Winchester Model 1894 rifle chambered in .30-.30, “TR had it fitted with a Maxim silencer so he could dispatch wild game and various varmints on the Sagamore Hill property without disturbing the Tiffanys, DuPonts, and other neighbors at Oyster Bay.” (pause to read at 2:22 min). If it at one time it was considered polite to use a suppressor so as to not disrupt your socialite neighbors, why shouldn’t today’s considerate Americans have the same access to these firearm accessories?
A suppressor is also a much more neighborly way to share the range with others! Nobody likes to be next to the person blasting a large-caliber, unsuppressed riffle under a canopy that’s making the hearing damage worse.
Suppressors are a firearm accessory everyone should own. Repealing the $200 tax makes it now easier than ever. The wait time has also been reduced to a significantly shorter timeline than in recent history. And there is even a brand that streamlines the process for you, and it can ship right to your house. It’s easier than you think, and worth the effort to own one.
