The Hearing Protection Act

The most recent big political news involves a behemoth-sized Budget Bill, a small part of which is actually a huge win for gun rights. The Hearing Protection Act to legalize suppressors has been swirling around DC for a long time, and two weeks ago a significantly hamstrung version of it was added to the annual Congressional budget bill.

The compromised language would have lowered the cost of a suppressor tax stamp from $200 down to $0… but it would have kept the existing requirements for fingerprints, and NFA database registry, and the serious (some would say cruel and unusual) felony penalties of 10 years in prison for not paying the $0 tax correctly.

Gun owners were understandably unhappy with this evisceration of the Hearing Protection Act, and the pressure that was placed on our representatives was sufficient for the new text of the bill to remove suppressors from the NFA entirely!

This is a massive cultural win, since suppressors have traditionally been a niche item, very poorly understood, and very politically unmotivating. The education on the NFA, suppressors, and historic firearm policies has been so effective over the last 10 years that this tiny bit of Hearing Protection Act code became a major sticking point in a much larger tax-and-spending Budget Bill.

Ultimately, what Trump has called the Big, Beautiful Bill is, well, not so beautiful. While it does contain many tax cuts, it will also increase federal spending by an unimaginable amount of money. T.REX's favorite congressman, Thomas Massie, voted against the final language of the bill for this very reason.

However, any tax that can be cut, and any infringement that can be removed, is good, which is why Thomas Massie, Andrew Clyde, and several other staunchly 2A-friendly Congressmen worked tirelessly to get suppressors fully removed from the NFA, even inside this hugely overgrown piece of annual legislation.

So, are suppressors legal yet? Not quite. The bill has passed the House, and now it will go to the Senate. The Senate will certainly pass this Annual budget, as it always does, but there is a slight chance that they will attempt to remove the Hearing Protection Act code before doing so. On the flip side, there is also a chance that they could add the SHORT Act, which would additionally remove short-barreled rifles, shotguns, and AOWs from the NFA.

We don't have an exact date for when the Senate will begin discussing this bill, but we do know that it will go through the Finance Committee first. Now is the time to start putting pressure on our US Senators to make sure they keep the Hearing Protection Act, add the SHORT Act, and cut as much spending as possible.

Here at T.REX we're very optimistic about the first proposal, cautiously optimistic about the second, and somewhat pessimistic about the third.