DES MOINES – The Republican-controlled Iowa House on Thursday easily approved a bill that authorizes the possession of firearm silencers.
The bill allows any person, trust, corporation, or other entity to lawfully possess a firearm suppressor if the suppressor is registered and possessed in compliance with federal law and regulations.
Under current law, a mechanical device that silences, muffles, or suppresses the sound of a firearm when fired is defined as an offensive weapon. A person who is not otherwise authorized to possess an offensive weapon is guilty of a class “D” felony.
Representative Sharon Steckman said Thursday that she voted no on the bill and that it was “all about the powerful NRA. I did vote no.”
The Senate will have to agree on the legislation or mediate any changes with the House before the bill goes to Governor Terry Branstad for his signature.
17 thoughts on “Bill that legalizes firearm silencers passes Iowa House”
I don’t have a problem with people having silencers but, (I am almost chocking on this)I agree with Philly on this. There are other things that should be taking up the legislators time other than this and abortion issues.
silencers GOOD, Pot BAD! We need more ways to kill each other silently and pot heads need to go to prison! There, I said it!
good idea
Thank you Tonya.
You’re kidding me? Silencers are almost legal now? Okay part of me thinks this is cool. But the other part tells me the unsolved murder rate just went up. It’s quite comical what these legislators concern themselves with down in Des Moines. As if having silencers is of pressing concern. It’s like we have a bunch of kids running our Congress.
so, Peter, what you are saying is you want loud guns but quiet motorcycles?
No, John, I think these are cool…I’m just surprised at what the House spends their time on. I could think of probably a dozen or more things I’d be doing with my time over trying to legalize suppressors…but I’m not against suppressors….but it does make me scratch my head since they are the tools of assassins.
Only someone who watches to much TV would think that suppressors are the tools of assasins. Ever go squirrel hunting and wish you could take out the ear plugs? Like I said before, anything besides a sub sonic 22, all it does is make it alittle less louder.
No, I prefer to leave wildlife alone. So do you think animals are conscious beings? An interesting exercise is trying to imagine the perspective of an animal right now out in the wild. As we are sitting comfortably in our heated homes, many animals are out there in the frozen cold huddled in a tree stump or burrowed underneath all the snow deep in the ground, or deep in the water of a lake. Try to switch your mind’s eye away from your own body and into the body of the animal. I believe assuming the perspective of other creatures allows us to be more sympathetic to them. They have a view on the world just as we do. And it really gets weird if you extend this “remote viewing” down into the insect world or even plants. Many lives come and go within a rainforest or in a stream, and we never knew of their existence.
How can people do that when they are on level 246 of Farckle?
Too much LSD man, God put all animals on the earth for us, either to clothe us or feed us.
Silencers do absolutely nothing but make the weapon quieter. You can still hear the report though. You watch too much TV, only the very expensive ones make it so there is no noise and that’s basically on a .22, otherwise it is still loud just not as loud as without the silencer. And the murder rate has nothing to do with anything.
Maybe you better watch the Oil Can Suppressor videos on YOUTUBE. Those are pretty damn quiet. Quiet enough for someone to shoot and kill someone and slip off into the night. One of the other things Suppressors do is confuse as to where the sound comes from…but you know that right? I personally think this is cool, but it’s amusing to me that lawmakers think this is worthy of their time over other things. But I’m starting to come to grips with the reality of the mentality of the people in the land I find myself in. It’s taken awhile.
The weapon he used in that video was a sub sonic 22. I used to have a 22 rifle that was whisper quiet only if I used sub sonic rounds.
Oil can suppressor – sounds completely like something a person could do without going through the time and expense of getting proper authorization from the ATF…
better make it illegal to do that – oh wait
The time and money and background check make it very very very unlikely that any ‘legal’ suppressor would ever be used in a crime – unless it is used by a cop.
http://www.ar15.com/archive/topic.html?b=6&f=17&t=231577
Currently in the states that allow suppressors, and the list is quite numerous, the part that attaches the gun to the oil filter is the part that must be registered. It’s quite dramatic the reduction of noise that is possible. It sounds like a BB gun plink, plink, plink, yet it’s ripping full size tears into the can they were shooting it into to. I’ll provide the link so you can watch the video yourself. Oil Filter Suppressor
I would love to have a suppressor but you would never see me using an oil can. I have made them in the past and they work great on my .22’s and work pretty good on the AR but the AR is still louder than the .22.