Guns.com.

A Republican bill filed on Capitol Hill last week would deregulate suppressors as firearms under both the National Firearms Act and the Gun Control Act.

The Silencers Helping Us Save Hearing, or SHUSH, Act was introduced on Jan. 30 by U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, and has four co-sponsors, all from the GOP. The language of the five-page bill deletes all federal regulations– including taxes, fees, and registration requirements– of suppressors. Those who paid a transfer tax for such safety accessories in the two years before the bill’s enactment would get a refund.

“Despite what Hollywood may lead you to believe, silencers aren’t silent, and they aren’t just for secret agents,” said Lee in a statement. “They are a vital tool for hearing protection for countless marksmen and gun enthusiasts across America, and making them prohibitively difficult to obtain is an assault on the 2nd Amendment. The SHUSH Act eliminates federal regulation of silencers and treats them as the non-lethal accessory that they are.”

U.S. Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) will spearhead the bill in the House, where it will join a stack of suppressor reform legislation that includes the Hearing Protection Act. 

“Suppressors are a vital tool for responsible gun owners that protect hearing, enhance safety, and reduce firearm noise—but thanks to Hollywood and federal overreach, they’ve been unfairly vilified,” said Cloud. “Law-abiding Americans shouldn’t have to endure months of red tape and pay an additional tax just to access a safety accessory. The SHUSH Act puts an end to this unnecessary bureaucratic red tape, eliminates the federal tax, and prevents state overreach by treating suppressors like any other firearm accessory.”

More than 4 million suppressors are in circulation, a figure that has more than quadrupled in less than a decade.

According to a joint release from Cloud and Lee, the measure has the support of the National Association for Gun Rights, Gun Owners of America, the National Rifle Association and the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

The SHUSH Act in the Senate is filed as S.345 and has been referred to the Committee on Finance.

If I don’t get anything else out of this administration, I want suppressors removed from the NFA.

There is no excuse for not doing this bill and pushing it through quickly. There is no excuse for suppressors to have ever been in the NFA to begin with. This is about hearing protection, something OSHA claims to care about.

In fact, there is no excuse for the NFA.