Tag Archives: congress

HPA of 2015 Reintroduced in 115th Congress as H.R.367

As anyone on the ASA’s mailing list would know, the 115th Congress has reintroduced the Hearing Protection Act of 2015 (previously talked about here), this time as H.R.367 “To provide that silencers be treated the same as long guns.” Yeah, I’m hoping they work on that title a bit, but it was just introduced yesterday and currently has 43 Cosponsors.

Text for the bill has not yet been provided, but in the coming days it will likely be a verbatim copy of H.R. 3799, along with a companion Senate bill.  While I’m not getting my hopes up, introduction into the 115th Congress gives it some advantages that it didn’t previous enjoy.  While there was a slight increase in the Republican edge in Congress, there was previously and it never even got a committee hearing.  No, the advantage comes from the fact that not only would this bill have a significantly better chance to NOT get vetoed, it also has a proponent in the President Elect’s son, who notably met with SilencerCo CEO Joshua Waldron.

In any case, I’m cautiously optimistic, while I wholly suspect the pending stamp refund to get axed from the bill faster than an M-10’s cyclic rate, that was always there as a negotiation concession.  As said before, be sure to keep up the communication with your representatives telling them you expect to see their support of this during this session.

Edit: Found this thread, good bit of information on it, and it will likely be updated with a who’s who of key figures in getting this thing moving, so pay attention, and we might end up with a good list of representatives who need to be contacted.

Post Election To-Do List: Hearing Protection Act of 2015

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Well, a lot’s happened so far in November- so without rehashing what everyone’s seen nonstop for the last week or so, lets just say, some bills that may have been hung up to to not having a chance of getting signed, may actually start to see the light of day.

The one I’m personally looking forward to seeing get some action would be good ole’ H.R. 3799 / S.2236, the Hearing Protection Act of 2015.  In case you didn’t catch it when it was introduced, it’s a House and related Senate bill to remove “Silencers” (Suppressors) from the NFA and regulate like a long arm, 4473 / NICS and out the door (depending on state and local laws).  While in the short term, suppressor prices would probably spike as everyone would be buying them up the second they’re deregulated, but long term, once you can buy ’em off over-the-counter, so to say, the boom that will bring to the industry will be fun to watch.

Right, so down to what you can do to help- currently both bills have been languishing in committee since last year, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations for the House bill, and the even more exciting Committee on Finance for the Senate bill.  Republicans have House, Senate, and as of January, the White House.  There are no more road bumps left to getting this thing passed except the ones we allow.  That said CONTACT. YOUR. REPRESENTATIVES.  <- The form linked here will autopopulate a letter to your local reps based on the address you use, which you can change.  Personally, I added a line at the end indicating that I look forward to action on the bill that has sat since November of last year.