Silencer Central, if true Phuck them!

I have seen this same sort of BS from firearms instructors lobbying against “constitutional carry” and in favor of CCW permit, training mandates.

It is really hard to think of a demographic that has more turncoats within its ranks. Shocking really.

Will they be hurt by this and get run out of business? Doubtful but we’ll see. Other companies that faced this prediction in our community seem to be doing just fine.

Dick Sporting Goods
Black Rifle Coffee
Cheaper than dirt
Springfield armory
Rock River arms
Yeti
Benchmade



What happened with RRA?
 
Here is what suppressors cost in France.


Sirhr
I didn’t buy any because of the red tape required to bring ‘em back to the US, but I was a member of a couple gun clubs when stationed in Germany, and you were required to purchase a can when buying a hunting rifle over there.

Required for noise abatement, and hearing loss safety concerns… and while I don’t recall them as cheap as those in that link, they ran a lot less than 100 euro for really nice cans.
 
Silencer Central is getting their ass tore up all over Facebook.

IMG_7557.jpeg
 
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Yep, and in what, 3, 4, 6 weeks, what are we going to do? Yep, still use their processing bc it’s easy and filing sucks.

So revenue projections will for a quarter or 2 will be impacted.

The treat of substitutes/alternatives is low. I doubt it makes any substantive impact to their 2026 revenue projections.
 
I'm a lawyer (sorry). I am pretty sensitive to weaseling and BS in general. Silencer Central's response is not credible to me, although that doesn't prove they're trying to fool us. It could, just barely conceivably, mean they are inept at PR.

If I had to guess, I would guess that they're trying to fool us. Now that the shocking lobbyist form is out, the burden of proof is on them, and they haven't carried it.

If I ran Silencer Central AND I were in favor of removing the ban (my loose term for it), I would say this in my public response to this scandal: "Silencer Central is 100% in favor of removing silencers from the NFA and federal background check requirements, period."

Then I would make some effort to explain what "develop and support suppressor tax stamp conservation legislation" means. To me, the plain meaning of "conserving tax stamp legislation" is "keeping silencers in the NFA." Like Al Capone lobbying to keep prohibition.

Why didn't they say something like I would have said? They could have. They're not stupid. Anyone who has dealt with them knows they are very sharp, capable guys.

My guess, which is only a guess, is that they lobbied to keep silencers in the NFA and didn't think they would be caught.

If I were trying to get rid of silencer regulation, and I had to fill out the lobbyist form, I would say, "support deregulation of silencers, including removal of silencers from the National Firearms Act and the abolishment of all federal background check requirements." I would never in a million years write "develop and support suppressor tax stamp conservation legislation".

Their claim that they want to "crawl" before they "run" is somewhat ridiculous. It only makes sense with regard to laws that can be approached incrementally, like the now-nonexistent Constitutional right to abortion. Abortion is complicated. People fought over the trimester system. They fought over rape and incest and so on. It was possible to allow or prohibit a whole bunch of things separately. Silencers are not like that. There are three very simple issues: background checks, taxes, and the federal registry.

Their claim that they would sell more silencers without regulation also sounds like deception. Right now, they can charge $1600 for a stamp, processing, and a little can that probably cost them $75 to make. Other companies don't want to get involved because of the hassle, so competition is very limited. If you could walk into Ace Hardware and buy a silencer without an ID, which is how things should be, it's safe to say we would be paying a hundred bucks for the very best silencers, if that. The Chinese would probably be shipping pretty good ones here for $20. It would absolutely wipe out the huge markups silencer companies charge.

If you can sell one silencer and make a grand, do you really want to make and sell a hundred of them in order to make the same profit, with countless competitors trying to undercut you?

Silencers are cheap to make, as the link to the French site proves. Titanium isn't gold. You can buy a titanium cutting board for $100. CNC businesses are not hard to start, and machining silencer parts is very simple. I am a hack machinist, and I could make one easily.

As for the whores in Congress, offering to remove the tax without removing the registry requirement and the NFA background requirement is insulting. No one cares much about the tax. We care about waiting a year, being on a federal registry, and the possibility of being charged with a crime for making a silly technical error such as lending a silencer to a family member. The hassle and the criminal liability are the issues, and Congressmen know that.

Bottom line: I will be surprised if I learn that Silencer Central hasn't been working to keep silencers regulated. Maybe it will happen, but I'll bet it doesn't.
 
I have 3 LGS that sell suppressors and do all the paperwork including digital fingerprints right in the store. About an hour and everything is done.
If this passes silencer central is done, period.
Silencer Central’s business model is to ship suppressors directly to the buyer’s front door. This option is available for NFA items, but not for Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) items. They also make the Banish line of suppressors. If suppressors were removed from the NFA, they would likely be reclassified under the Gun Control Act (GCA), which does not allow direct-to-consumer shipping for such items. This would impact Silencer Central’s current business model, which is built around direct home delivery in 42 states.
 
The US far and away leads the world in suppression technology. If you want a suppressor that would have been sold in the 1990s you can look at a lot of other countries suppressors. Now many of them are doing much better in the way of product lines, but generally speaking you have garage built tech for the most part. Part of the reason for that is simply that the US has the volume of sales (and competition) to support the industry.

Generally speaking suppressors (and certain gun parts in general) are expensive because of the materials science involved. For example consider the bolt of an AR-15. Tiny little part but the materials and science that prevents those from exploding within the first 100 rounds is quite complicated. Suppressors are in general no different.

In general it's not as simple as using a metal lathe on some cheap steel. On top of that a suppressor today isn't the same one from 15 years ago. There is usually a lot of testing involved in say making a supressor tailor made for use on a gas gun vs a bolt gun. They might have to make dozens of one model and shoot 10s of thousands of rounds for each one to make sure it works before bringing it to market. And then on top of that they are not using cheap machines to make modern supressors. A CNC machine and a wire EDM and a laser welder (or whatever else they need) all have to be maintained, including making payments on their $4 or $5 million dollars worth of machinery.

Then you need a shop, and you need to hire people to run everything. Just to get a sniff of the action it could be $5 to $10 million dollars just to try to bring the stuff to market all with no guarantees that anyone will buy anything.

In short personally I think supressors are fairly priced considering everything involved, and we haven't even touched on the regulations involved, nor the taxes that exist outside of the $200 we see as consumers.

Think about the complexity of a simple bolt action rifle, then think about a few baffles welded together.

They're expensive because they're low volume production. They're not really interested in high volume, or so I'd assume considering 50% of the inventory on silencer shop is on backorder on any given day.

There's very little real variation on cans. They are almost all clipped k-baffle variations. Sure, there's some crazy 3d printed ones coming out. Those are not the majority of manufacturers top selling items.

As far as "specific gun usage" that's all marketing bs. Pick a weight and quality level you're willing to pay for and anything in that price range will be comparable.
 
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I'm a lawyer (sorry). I am pretty sensitive to weaseling and BS in general. Silencer Central's response is not credible to me, although that doesn't prove they're trying to fool us. It could, just barely conceivably, mean they are inept at PR.

If I had to guess, I would guess that they're trying to fool us. Now that the shocking lobbyist form is out, the burden of proof is on them, and they haven't carried it.

If I ran Silencer Central AND I were in favor of removing the ban (my loose term for it), I would say this in my public response to this scandal: "Silencer Central is 100% in favor of removing silencers from the NFA and federal background check requirements, period."

Then I would make some effort to explain what "develop and support suppressor tax stamp conservation legislation" means. To me, the plain meaning of "conserving tax stamp legislation" is "keeping silencers in the NFA." Like Al Capone lobbying to keep prohibition.

Why didn't they say something like I would have said? They could have. They're not stupid. Anyone who has dealt with them knows they are very sharp, capable guys.

My guess, which is only a guess, is that they lobbied to keep silencers in the NFA and didn't think they would be caught.

If I were trying to get rid of silencer regulation, and I had to fill out the lobbyist form, I would say, "support deregulation of silencers, including removal of silencers from the National Firearms Act and the abolishment of all federal background check requirements." I would never in a million years write "develop and support suppressor tax stamp conservation legislation".

Their claim that they want to "crawl" before they "run" is somewhat ridiculous. It only makes sense with regard to laws that can be approached incrementally, like the now-nonexistent Constitutional right to abortion. Abortion is complicated. People fought over the trimester system. They fought over rape and incest and so on. It was possible to allow or prohibit a whole bunch of things separately. Silencers are not like that. There are three very simple issues: background checks, taxes, and the federal registry.

Their claim that they would sell more silencers without regulation also sounds like deception. Right now, they can charge $1600 for a stamp, processing, and a little can that probably cost them $75 to make. Other companies don't want to get involved because of the hassle, so competition is very limited. If you could walk into Ace Hardware and buy a silencer without an ID, which is how things should be, it's safe to say we would be paying a hundred bucks for the very best silencers, if that. The Chinese would probably be shipping pretty good ones here for $20. It would absolutely wipe out the huge markups silencer companies charge.

If you can sell one silencer and make a grand, do you really want to make and sell a hundred of them in order to make the same profit, with countless competitors trying to undercut you?

Silencers are cheap to make, as the link to the French site proves. Titanium isn't gold. You can buy a titanium cutting board for $100. CNC businesses are not hard to start, and machining silencer parts is very simple. I am a hack machinist, and I could make one easily.

As for the whores in Congress, offering to remove the tax without removing the registry requirement and the NFA background requirement is insulting. No one cares much about the tax. We care about waiting a year, being on a federal registry, and the possibility of being charged with a crime for making a silly technical error such as lending a silencer to a family member. The hassle and the criminal liability are the issues, and Congressmen know that.

Bottom line: I will be surprised if I learn that Silencer Central hasn't been working to keep silencers regulated. Maybe it will happen, but I'll bet it doesn't.
You as a hack machinist can copy any of these? This is the tech from 12 years ago. Good luck.

1000021990.jpg

1000021989.jpg

Have you cut anything other than brass steel or aluminum? If not you don't know what you are talking about.

Also some recent comparisons.
6061 aluminum selling for $2.20-4.50/ pound. 7075 $4-7/ pound.
Titanium 6al4v $10-30/ pound.
Inconel $20-80/ pound
Remember 90+% will be turned into chips. You still have to have enough to chuck on, can't really nest parts so that adds for each piece.








More for everybody else.



As to those French cans, most at the beginning are only rated for 22lr only and made out of 2014 or 2024 aluminum (equivalent of duraluminum that they claim).



The browning one (still for 22lr) is $106 and made of aluminum with stainless thread.



Ase eco is $134. Still aluminum, still 22lr.



Ase sl7i 30 cal non magnum at $660 is cast and welded black steel and 300 series stainless. 20oz and 6.3" long, 1.75" Dia and does 30db only.



Sl8i 300blk, $938. 29-31 dba subsonic, 18-24 dba super sonic. Black steel and 300 stainless. 19.2 Oz, 7.8" long, 1.7" dia



Good luck cleaning most of them.



Comparisons from silencershop (some out of stock)

Silencer Co warlock. 22lr aluminum. $199. How much did they pay in taxes already?

Gemtech tracker. Titanium aluminum, 30 cal. $470.

Ocl polonium. 17-4, 30 cal. $532.

There are 12 30 cal cans cheaper than the sl7i, and 55 that they list cheaper than the sl8i.
 
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The US far and away leads the world in suppression technology. If you want a suppressor that would have been sold in the 1990s you can look at a lot of other countries suppressors. Now many of them are doing much better in the way of product lines, but generally speaking you have garage built tech for the most part. Part of the reason for that is simply that the US has the volume of sales (and competition) to support the industry.

Generally speaking suppressors (and certain gun parts in general) are expensive because of the materials science involved. For example consider the bolt of an AR-15. Tiny little part but the materials and science that prevents those from exploding within the first 100 rounds is quite complicated. Suppressors are in general no different.

In general it's not as simple as using a metal lathe on some cheap steel. On top of that a suppressor today isn't the same one from 15 years ago. There is usually a lot of testing involved in say making a supressor tailor made for use on a gas gun vs a bolt gun. They might have to make dozens of one model and shoot 10s of thousands of rounds for each one to make sure it works before bringing it to market. And then on top of that they are not using cheap machines to make modern supressors. A CNC machine and a wire EDM and a laser welder (or whatever else they need) all have to be maintained, including making payments on their $4 or $5 million dollars worth of machinery.

Then you need a shop, and you need to hire people to run everything. Just to get a sniff of the action it could be $5 to $10 million dollars just to try to bring the stuff to market all with no guarantees that anyone will buy anything.

In short personally I think supressors are fairly priced considering everything involved, and we haven't even touched on the regulations involved, nor the taxes that exist outside of the $200 we see as consumers.
 
What happened with RRA?
RRA and Springfield armory did this:

"As you probably know, the lobbying arm of Springfield Armory and Rock River Arms recently cut a deal with Illinois Senator Don Harmon to exclude the gunmakers from a licensing scheme. As a result, SB 1657 passed the Illinois State Senate and is headed to the House. It’s a horrible bill that includes onerous licensing for FFL’s and a nine transfer limit for Land of Lincoln gun owners."

When word got out, they both then lobbied the House to defeat the bill. The fact though that they gave a lot of money to anti-gun democrats pissed off a lot of gun owners in Illinois. They then claimed their lobbiest went rogue.

Here is a link to one of the articles written about it.

 
Think about the complexity of a simple bolt action rifle, then think about a few baffles welded together.

They're expensive because they're low volume production. They're not really interested in high volume, or so I'd assume considering 50% of the inventory on silencer shop is on backorder on any given day.

There's very little real variation on cans. They are almost all clipped k-baffle variations. Sure, there's some crazy 3d printed ones coming out. Those are not the majority of manufacturers top selling items.

As far as "specific gun usage" that's all marketing bs. Pick a weight and quality level you're willing to pay for and anything in that price range will be comparable.
Completely incorrect on so many levels, but you do you.

If those baffles are not lined up correctly, and especially if the end is out of parallel with the shoulder of the barrel your 1/2" rifle becomes not anywhere near that with the can on it, and your poi shift will be massive, possibly in the feet or more.

Low back pressure cans are definitely a thing for sure, and that ain't marketing.

Then you are also talking about materials that can get repeatedly heated up past 1,500+ degrees and still remain structurally sound under massive amounts of pressure while under extreme heat.

There is all types of technology and innovation in the suppressor space but of course you're more than welcome to ignore all of it.
 
RRA and Springfield armory did this:

"As you probably know, the lobbying arm of Springfield Armory and Rock River Arms recently cut a deal with Illinois Senator Don Harmon to exclude the gunmakers from a licensing scheme. As a result, SB 1657 passed the Illinois State Senate and is headed to the House. It’s a horrible bill that includes onerous licensing for FFL’s and a nine transfer limit for Land of Lincoln gun owners."

When word got out, they both then lobbied the House to defeat the bill. The fact though that they gave a lot of money to anti-gun democrats pissed off a lot of gun owners in Illinois. They then claimed their lobbiest went rogue.

Here is a link to one of the articles written about it.

First thing I thought of when I saw this thread...The Lobbyist group they claimed went rogue comprised of the Pres and VP of the companies. So, they claim they went rogue on themselves...
 
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You as a hack machinist can copy any of these? This is the tech from 12 years ago. Good luck.

View attachment 8687511
View attachment 8687512
Have you cut anything other than brass steel or aluminum? If not you don't know what you are talking about.

Also some recent comparisons.
6061 aluminum selling for $2.20-4.50/ pound. 7075 $4-7/ pound.
Titanium 6al4v $10-30/ pound.
Inconel $20-80/ pound
Remember 90+% will be turned into chips. You still have to have enough to chuck on, can't really nest parts so that adds for each piece.








More for everybody else.



As to those French cans, most at the beginning are only rated for 22lr only and made out of 2014 or 2024 aluminum (equivalent of duraluminum that they claim).



The browning one (still for 22lr) is $106 and made of aluminum with stainless thread.



Ase eco is $134. Still aluminum, still 22lr.



Ase sl7i 30 cal non magnum at $660 is cast and welded black steel and 300 series stainless. 20oz and 6.3" long, 1.75" Dia and does 30db only.



Sl8i 300blk, $938. 29-31 dba subsonic, 18-24 dba super sonic. Black steel and 300 stainless. 19.2 Oz, 7.8" long, 1.7" dia



Good luck cleaning most of them.



Comparisons from silencershop (some out of stock)

Silencer Co warlock. 22lr aluminum. $199. How much did they pay in taxes already?

Gemtech tracker. Titanium aluminum, 30 cal. $470.

Ocl polonium. 17-4, 30 cal. $532.

There are 12 30 cal cans cheaper than the sl7i, and 55 that they list cheaper than the sl8i.
What exactly is your objection and what are you complaining about here?
 
There’s a thousand on line gun stores all making money, selling non-NFA firearms and shipping them to brick and mortar stores every day. If Silencer Shop’s business is so fragile that they can’t do what every e-store in America does every day. Fuck them.

That said, I don’t think removing silencers from the NFA materially affects SC’s business. Why? Because of the above mentioned gun stores. And, because of all of SC’s competitor on line silencer stores that thrive in the environment while still shipping to a B&M for pick up.

Hell, I have a pile of suppressors and “how do I get this to my house” was like the eleventeenth worry. Honestly, drive 20 minutes to pick it up or sweat while is bounces around the US in the back of a “mail van.” Yeah, I’ll pick it up. Thank you very much.

Will they need to innovate their business model? Yes.

But, maintaining the status quo is the easy button for them. I’d guess that laziness (just do what we’ve always done), and the above mentioned super fudd are the biggest causes.

Oh, and I can’t even with The VSO Gun Channel. “Guys, I just heard about this and had to make a video. (AKA, someone else posted a video and I gotta get in on some of those views)- 5minutes of blather without any good info.- “Ok, gotta pay the bills.”- 5 more minutes of inane blather.- Anyway, tell me what you think in the comments.” Ten to 15 minutes gone. Nothing gained.