Since their invention by Hiram Percy Maxim (who also invented automobile mufflers) suppressors, also called silencers (a bit of a misnomer in my opinion) have been popular in the realm of gun owners, particularly among hunters. But since the National Firearms Act of 1934, they have been stigmatized (somewhat appropriately at the time) and villianized. But in accordance with the NFA you can own a suppressor in 42 states after a very comprehensive background check (which can take several months), and paying $200 dollars for a tax stamp. So as you can see, it is a very tedious process, but it helps to guarantee that no unauthorized parties can possess such devices. But, that is the case for 42 states, but not Illinois. In Illinois, owning a suppressor is illegal, but there are some circumstances that I, and many of my fellow Illinoisans feel that a suppressor would be nice to have the choice of using a suppressor. I will lay out these reasons in three perspectives, from the recreational/shooting sports perspective, from the perspective of hunters, and for home defense.

From the recreational perspective, suppressors can help immensely with target practice. They can help to preserve the hearing of the shooter (this is a generic term for the one in the act of firing the weapon) and those who are with them. With pistols and smaller bore rifles, foam ear plugs are enough to protect your hearing, but with larger caliber firearms, they are not enough and you have to double up on your ear protection. But, with the use of suppressors which do not make firearms completely silent, but only lower the decibels into hearing safe ranges, you can use firearms without ear protection at all. They can also help to keep noise complaints down, my house is situated in a very hilly area with plenty of safe backstop to put targets in front of and be able to shoot with no range fee, but the reason that I don't do it very often is that I have neighbors that I do not wish to annoy with the sound of repeated gunfire. 

From the perspective of the hunter, there are very few times that you get the shot at a once in a lifetime Buck, or any other animal, you get so excited that you jerk the trigger and miss, and that deer or other animal disappears, never to be seen again. Wouldn't it be nice to have another chance to get it. With suppressors you may get that second shot. While an unsuppressed gunshot will frighten most animals because of just how loud it is, a suppressed gunshot will in most cases just make them look up to see what the noise was, and it can give you the split second that you need to aim and perform a better shot and put food on the table. In addition to this reason, when hunting, hearing protection is not practical, you need to hear what is going on around you, so you don't miss it when that large buck is stomping through the brush ahead of you to give you the opportunity to get ready. Electronic hearing protection, unless you have a large budget, which most people don't, battery life won't last for hunters that stay in place until the animal that they are looking for shows up. So a suppressor will help to prevent Tinnitus in hunters (a fairly common condition for lifelong outdoorsmen).

And finally, the from the perspective if someone seeking to defend their family in the event that their home is invaded by someone seeking to do harm to their family. Now this goes for indoor shooting range as well, but not as much because if you are at the range, you have time to put on you eyes and ears, as we say, but in a home invasion scenario, seconds count, so there is more than likely not time to put on hearing protection. When a firearm is fired in an enclosed environment, the sound waves will bounce off the walls and back at the person firing the firearm without having the necessary space and distance to dissipate to become safer for your hearing. In many cases firing a gun indoors without ear protection is worse for your hearing, than firing a gun outside without hearing protection, but in some cases it is much much worse. In some cases it is so severe that people report not being able to hear anything except ringing and major headaches for days after the incident.

So with these reasons in mind, I hope that you will listen to the people who signed this petition and help to protect the hearing of legal gun owners in Illinois.

Thank you for reading this petition.