The Dangerous 0.003%

Aaron Spuler is a firearms enthusiast and recreational shooter. Follow more or his work at The Weapon Blog

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) released statistics to the Washington Free Beacon on Wednesday showing that the nearly 1.3 million silencers registered in the United States are rarely used in crimes.

“As of 02-03-2017, there are 1,297,670 suppressors registered with ATF under the National Firearms Act,” Justice Department spokesman Dillon McConnell told the Free Beacon.

That number is an increase of nearly 400,000 registered silencers since the same time last year, when ATF records indicated there were 902,805 silencers in the country.

The ATF confirmed that silencers are rarely used in crimes despite their explosion in popularity. The agency has only recommended prosecutions for 44 silencer-related crimes per year over the past decade. That means roughly .003 percent of silencers are used in crimes each year. Of those 44 crimes per year, only 6 involved defendants with prior felony convictions.

In an internal memo leaked to the Washington Post last week, ATF Associate Deputy Director Ronald Turk argued that silencers should be deregulated due to the low rate at which they are used in crimes. Currently silencers are regulated by the restrictive National Firearms Act, which also regulates machine guns.

Read the rest of the article: https://freebeacon.com/issues/atf-despite-nearly-1-3-million-silencers-united-states-rarely-used-crimes/