Criminal use of firearms silencers
A study from the Western Criminology Review. Most suppressor crimes are for the act of owning a suppressor for which you have not paid a tax. Not paying the tax will land you in jail for 30 years. Seems awful cruel and unusual for tax evasion.
I only know of one instance in which a suppressor was used in an actual shooting. And that suppressor, if memory serves, was stolen.
March 30th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
Thirty years is for possessing a silencer during a crime of violence.
I think not paying the tax is five.
March 30th, 2011 at 6:55 pm
I’ll be including this study (by an Alaska Public Defender no less) in a letter to my Congressman and Senators.
Mark Begich is an Alaska (D-ifferent than most Lower 48 Dems) and smart to boot. A re-examination of Federal suppressor regulations is something he can get behind and only solidify his local support.
March 30th, 2011 at 7:32 pm
Not paying the tax is ten years as a theoretical maximum, same as for any other NFA violation (26 USC 5871). I doubt anyone’s ever gotten that much, even for unpapered machineguns or DDs. If someone’s going away for a long stretch, it’s usually due to something else, like murder or drug running, and the NFA charges are incidental.
The usual outcome for a first offense is probation unless you get lucky with a crazy DA/USA/judge, and wind up getting five years, like in a case one ATF specialist was telling me about.
March 31st, 2011 at 7:49 pm
Doesn’t putting a pillow around the gun work just as well for murder? Not so good for some quiet target practice without disturbing the neighbors though, since the pillow tends to interfere considerably with achieving the proper sight alignment.
April 1st, 2011 at 10:56 am
I’d bet most common criminal uses of a silencer/suppressor involve a pillow, a potato, or a bottle. The idea that a street gun will A) be threaded to accept a silencer, and B) the criminal will have the correct silencer handy seems a stretch.