- Target:
- Standing Committee on Petitions , House of Representatives
- Region:
- Australia
The National Firearms agreement states that suppressors are a category R "weapon";
"(h) a silencer or other device or contrivance made or used, or capable of being used, or intended to be used, for reducing the sound caused by discharging a firearm;"
It is unfortunately widely thought that suppressors fully silence a firearm. This is however false. A suppressor will only dampen the noise produced from a discharging firearm.
Even though hearing protection is available firing a large caliber rifle whilst undercover does not protect the hearing to comfortable levels.
In fact it is highly recommended that even with a suppressor a shooter should wear hearing protection. The typical suppressor only manages to reduce 14.6 - 45Db the reason for so much variation is due to length of suppressor/whether the ammunition is subsonic and location.
Suppressors are used by several countries for the purpose of protecting hearing of the shooter and any bystanders. Some of these countries are: New Zealand, Finland, Germany, Norway and Poland to name a few.
For the purpose of protecting the hearing of all recreational or professional shooters within Australia, we the undersigned call on the Australian government to rewrite the National Firearms agreement, to make suppressors available for purchase to the owners of firearms within all states and territories of Australia.
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The Legalise suppressors for firearms petition to Standing Committee on Petitions , House of Representatives was written by Simon Rival and is in the category Law Reform at GoPetition.