If so, I am very interested in hearing your first impressions. What it sounded like, what you thought of it, etc.
The more I think about suppressors, the more I'm coming to terms with something. Having a heavy weight at the end of a handgun slows down it's general speed of aim and operation. There is no way around this. Unsuppressed centerfire pistols are faster to use and easier to conceal than even the best centerfire pistol suppressor. It's true that the extra weight of a supressor can sometimes help with recovery and making a followup shot, but getting that first shot on target quicker than the bad guy is always going to matter more to me. Yes, there are tactical applications for a centerfire pistol silencer. But the principles of reactive gunfighting dictate that the fight won't always be what we want it to be or where we want it to be. It doesn't guarantee that we'll have the drop on a group of enemies.
Unsuppressed guns can be concealed, unsuppressed guns can be drawn and put on target with extreme speed. With practice, the cumbersome handling of a silenced centerfire pistol can be overcome to a degree. But it will always cause "extra length" to be at the end of it's host, thereby "leading" it's host and operator around corners, etc. There are lighter, shorter centerfire handgun silencers produced- but even wet, these generally perform very poorly in terms of suppression and good luck finding a carry holster that fits them. Even these give the bad guy a convenient handle to grab on to if he has the opportunity, e.g as we turn a corner clearing the house.
I know that the ATF has a different take on various firearm definitions. Like Shoestring = machinegun, etc. But there is no "report" to "muffle" with captive piston technology. There is no gas that travels through the barrel to form a "report". There is combustion within the cartridge itself... the cartridge itself is cycled through a firearm. Now, if you were to affix some device to the firearm to further muffle the piston-mechanical noise of the cartridge itself, then I could see how that would be de-facto illegal under the legal silencer/muffler definition.
But think about this- think about all the various ammunition types and loads for any given platform. Some are naturally louder- some are naturally quieter. Less powder, less pressure- quieter. In many cases, these cartridges can muffle the sound signature of the host by MORE than the legal definition of a firearm silencer or muffler (1 single dB).
Some ammunition types and loads are INHERENTLY silencers in and of themselves if you extend the "silencer" definition to cartridges.
So what's wrong with a cartridge that is INHERENTLY even quieter than these- ala captive piston loads?
ATF wrote: The term “Firearm Silencer” or “Firearm Muffler” means any device for silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of a portable firearm, including any combination of parts, designed or redesigned, and intended for the use in assembling or fabricating a firearm silencer or firearm muffler, any part intended only for use in such assembly or fabrication.
Yeah, I know it wouldn't fly with the ATF. I know that I'm preaching to the choir. I know that if you were to work up some of these, they would land you in federal prison. But does my argument make some logical, legal sense? If you think it does, then let's push this issue. Maybe muzzle silencers will be rendered obsolete after captive piston technology is perfected. Maybe we won't even need to get the NFA repealed or altered for silencers.
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