Spokane Police Show Paul Ryan How It’s Done on Suppressors

A visitors pulls the slide of a pistol with a silencer at a gun displays at a National Rif
DOMINICK REUTER/AFP/Getty Images
AWR Hawkins

Just days after Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) pulled the Hearing Protection Act — thereby preventing a floor vote on suppressor deregulation — the Spokane Police announced they would add suppressors to police rifles to protect officers’ hearing.

On October 11, the NRA tweeted:

The Spokesman-Review published an article on the decision to put suppressors on police rifles and quoted police department range master Lt. Rob Boothe saying, “It’s nothing more than like the muffler you put on your car.” He called suppressors “an OSHA-approved noise reduction device.”

This is a point Breitbart News has made again and again: namely, that suppressors do not silence firearms. Rather, they muffle the initial, otherwise ear-damaging sound wave emitted from the end of the barrel when a round is fired. The gunshot is still audible with a suppressor, but it safer on the unprotected ear.

On October 2 — the day after the Vegas attack — Hillary Clinton promulgated the left’s misinformation campaign on suppressors, intimating that the devices silence gunfire and would have allowed the Vegas attacker to fire without detection, thereby harming more people:

Although Hillary’s tweet is proof that she does not understand firearms, suppressors, or the tactical advantages the attacker enjoyed via his perch on the 32nd story. Nevertheless, the very next day, Hillary’s tweet was followed by news that Speaker Ryan shelved the Hearing Protection Act, which was ready for a floor vote.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

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