Hearing Protection Act Scraps Silencer Registry, Imposes New 10% Tax

The aptly named Hearing Protection Act (HPA) is a major federal overhaul of how firearm silencers and mufflers are regulated. If passed, it would essentially pull silencers out of the highly restrictive National Firearms Act (NFA) framework, but it doesn't do so for free. It’s a classic federal trade-off: reduced bureaucracy for owners, but new taxes and record-keeping changes for everyone else.

The NFA Fast Track: Less Red Tape for Legal Owners

For anyone who has ever bought a silencer, you know the pain of the NFA process—the $200 tax stamp, the long wait times, and the federal registration. Section 3 of the HPA aims to kill that specific headache. It states that if you legally obtain a silencer under the standard federal gun control rules (Title 18), you are automatically considered to have met all the NFA registration and licensing requirements under the tax code. This means the silencer is treated more like a regular firearm transfer, sidestepping the separate NFA stamp and wait time. For a legal gun owner, this is a significant streamlining of a process that currently takes months.

State Taxes and Rules? Forget About It

One of the biggest shifts in this bill is found in Section 4: Federal preemption. If this bill passes, state and local governments would be blocked from imposing special taxes, registration requirements, or unique recordkeeping rules on silencers that are involved in interstate commerce. Think of it this way: if your state tried to pass a law requiring a mandatory state-level silencer registry or a special $50 local tax just on silencers, the federal HPA would override it. States can still charge a general sales tax, but they can’t single out silencers for extra regulatory burden. This is a massive shift of regulatory power away from local jurisdictions.

The Silent Death of Federal Records

Section 5 is perhaps the most attention-grabbing part of the bill: it mandates the destruction of records. Within 365 days of the Act becoming law, the Attorney General must destroy specific records related to silencers currently held in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record. This means the government must wipe out the federal paperwork identifying who owns, who transferred, and who manufactured specific silencers. For privacy advocates and current owners, this means the government loses its central database tracking ownership of these devices. However, for law enforcement, this eliminates a crucial historical tool for tracing silencer components used in crimes. It’s a definite win for privacy, but it creates a significant information gap for future investigations.

Manufacturers Get New Rules and a New Tax Bill

While owners get a break, manufacturers and importers face two major changes. First, Section 7 imposes a new 10% federal excise tax on the manufacture, production, or importation of silencers and mufflers. This new cost will likely be passed directly to consumers, meaning that while you save the $200 NFA tax stamp, you’ll likely pay an additional 10% on the wholesale cost of the device itself. Second, Section 6 updates the definition of silencers and requires manufacturers to engrave or cast a unique serial number directly onto the outer tube or main housing of the silencer. This is a standardization measure, though manufacturers can ask the Attorney General for permission to mark it differently if the main housing is impractical to mark.