Dear Neighbor,
I am quite pleased people brought their concerns forward as I presented a bill during a committee meeting this week because it provided me with an opportunity to dispel Hollywood-style rumors.
It goes like this:
I authored a bill (H.F. 1434) to legalize the use of suppressors on guns. It's a simple proposal to protect hunters' ears, yet some folks can't get past acting as if this were some kind of technology that would aid James Bond-style murderers.
Sorry to let the facts get in the way of the rhetoric, but: Studies show suppressors reduce the "pow" factor in a gun to 130 decibels – the same as a jackhammer. This is a slight sound reduction for a shotgun without a suppressor. Do a Google search of "how many decibels is a shotgun blast" and it reveals:
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Being at close range to a single extremely loud sound such as a shotgun blast (about 145-165 decibels dB) can cause permanent damage to your hearing, but so can constant exposure to the more moderate levels of noise produced by music players.
That Google entry references music, but I'm not about to write a bill governing how loud you can play your Van Halen albums.
What I am concerned about is when people are in a duck stand, the mallards fly by and – KABOOM! If you aren't a hunter, just turn up your speakers and listen to this horrendous sound for a minute. You'll understand why this bill is important. A chainsaw's 110 decibels ringing in your ears would be more, ahem, pleasant.
Oh, and another thing, it would take at least three background checks and somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000 for a person to acquire a suppressor. The way my bill is written, you can't just pull off a gravel road near West Union, Nimrod or Leader and buy one at a gun show.
This is a prime example of a bill where misinformation, sensationalism and a Hollywood mindset collide to create a fear factor. It's a good bill, it has bipartisan support and hunters in our area would just like the opportunity to protect their ears.
Now, if anybody has an idea for how to suppress this noise in an otherwise fantastic movie, I'd love to hear it.
Sincerely,
Mark