Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2014 00:22:19 -0400
From: Jack STevens
Subject: Very simple reason a person would not use a muffler or silencer
Maryphillis,
I edited your original post for brevity purposes. I do not mean to detract from the rest of your missive.
There is a very simple reason a person would not use a muffler or silencer while target shooting at a range. They only recently became legal in North Carolina to own one (late 2013) and only for hunting purposes. To obtain one, you must first get the approval of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, pass a federal background check, pay a federal tax payment of $200, which would then allow you to apply to the county sheriff for permission to own one. Then you have to find a vendor willing to sell you one. As near as I can find, the federal law only allows their use in hunting, not range shooting.
It is more difficult to get a permit to use a silencer than it is to get a concealed carried weapons permit.
I don’t yet know anything about the gun range going in near the Goat House cat refuge. I am hopeful that it is being constructed in such a way to block most of the sound that would travel toward any of their neighbors. My wife and I lived very close to a sheriff’s outdoor practice range in Florida and after some changes they made the only time the house was disturbing was when they detonated old explosives there. The gun shots were quite subdued. I am also hopeful that the range operators will allow the general public to make use of the range, perhaps on a membership basis.
My source of legal information about the silencer laws:
http://www.newsobserver.com/
http://www.guntrustlawyer.com/
http://www.ncgunblog.com/2013/
The use of a silencer isn’t a win-win in this case. I don’t think it’s legal, as strange as that may sound.
-Jack Stevens
> Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2014 12:39:54 -0400 (EDT)
> From:
> Subject: I suspect they have deadened hearing
> I’m appalled at the lack of compassion and empathy that some people have exhibited regarding the issue > of a shooting range next door to Siglinda’s Goathouse Refuge. I suspect they have deadened hearing.
> I’m appalled as well that a shooting range near farms and private homes wouldn’t use mufflers or silencers > on their guns. The gun “kick” would be the same and the need to practice accuracy would also be
> the same. So why not help both their range AND the sensitive animals nearby? Win-win is so
> much better than win-lose.
> – Maryphyllis