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Comment by giardini | Hacker News Reader

ELI5?

Most interesting for most people, in States where there is no specific NFA law, one can now buy a firearm suppressor (which softens the report but does not make it whisper quiet) just like any other firearm. Same normal form. Not paying a $200 excise tax and submitting fingerprints and other NFA mandates to the Federal government prior to purchase.

For context for people who have little experience with firearms, suppressors are a form of hearing protection or perhaps you can say sound mitigation. As you say they're nothing at all like their depictions in movies or games, that classic sound sample is a raygun noise chopped and compressed with NOTHING in common with the real sound profile.

Unfortunately much like "rag with chloroform" or "killer with a black glove" became stock images in movies, "Gun with a silencer means a PROFESSIONAL KILLER" is a pure invention.

if you are using 22 shorts you have a good chance of making it almost silent, it will still sound like a couple of pieces of metal smacking against each other, unless it is bolt action. the problems being supersonic rounds and the shockwave [sonic "boom"], and the sound of the action itself. the professional killer item is more along the lines of a Welrod: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welrod, or similar devices.

The professional killer weapon of choice is and was a stolen or "ghost" gun they drop at the scene without any prints. The old Cosa Nostra special, because the real concern is that you're caught with the murder weapon; it doesn't matter if you were quiet if you have an single-purpose assassination tool after all.

So the cops find a gun they can't trace, a dead body, no other physical evidence and frankly that sort of murder isn't typically solved.

oh, ok if you include gangsters as professionals, i was limiting myself to government contractors, i suppose that doesnt preclude government, tendering from some of the more discreet sub contractors from that organisation, that are able to pull it off on a crowded street, with no reliable witness testimony.

take note, both styles require a team, this is not a solo venture if your in business you need cover and extraction, and supports, like a stage magician.

In many ways the true difference between any sort of professional and an amateur is the involvement of training, and an organization with resources behind them. That's as true for crime as it is for anything else.

The NFA is a tax and has been upheld under Congresses taxing authority. When the tax became zero and no revenue was collected, a Federal Court ruled that Congress had no authority to run the registration and prior approval apparatus that was used to prove tax compliance. Lot's of complicated stuff about injunctions applying only to plaintiffs and orgs, but the DOJ did not appeal, and now the ATF has said they are making this uniform. This does not change state laws that under State statute make it a crime to have such items or to have such items that are not registered.

I am not a lawyer, but I am generally interested in firearms and firearms law.

A reasonably good source is Mark Smith on YouTube. He is an attorney.

Hope this helps.

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